


i have your dreams and your teeth marks

by dare121



Category: The Last of Us
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, Knotting, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Medium Burn, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:47:05
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 55,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25112602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dare121/pseuds/dare121
Summary: While Dina is on her way to the clinic, she sees the gates open out of the corner of her eyes.When she turns her head, she notices the limp, swinging arm first. It’s hanging from the arms of a tall man with grey hair and a full beard, blood covering his front. The arm has a tattoo on it and is attached to the unmoving body of a young woman whose ashen features immediately make Dina jump into action.--or, Ellie and Joel arrive in Jackson with bullet holes, and Dina is tasked with patching them up.or or, Jay accidentally wound up writing 45k again and will be updating every two days. Story is finished, folks! Enjoy!
Relationships: Dina/Ellie (The Last of Us)
Comments: 998
Kudos: 2171
Collections: Finishedstoriesmine





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PlushPanda](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PlushPanda/gifts).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oops so this accidentally happened again. i sit down to do a thing and it spirals and spirals and... anyway, i started this in 2018 and finished it this year because the game hurt me but also inspired me
> 
> hope you enjoy!
> 
> if you do not like ABO, please do yourself a favor and skip this one. for everyone else: enjoy! hopefully!

While Dina is on her way to the clinic, she sees the gates open out of the corner of her eyes. 

When she turns her head, she notices the limp, swinging arm first. It’s hanging from the arms of a tall man with grey hair and a full beard, blood covering his front. The arm has a tattoo on it and is attached to the unmoving body of a young woman whose ashen features immediately make Dina jump into action.

She’s in front of the man in a few quick strides.

“What happened to her?” she asks, grabbing the man by the arm and pulling him along in the direction of the infirmary. “Did she get bit?”

“No,” he replies, shaking his head vigorously. “She was shot. We were tryin’ to stay clear of raiders.” 

He smells worried, but it isn't pungent enough to be the scent of an alpha. He’s tall, taller than the average person, but Dina has long since stopped equating size with status.

As soon as they reach the clinic, Dina drags the man inside, and pushes him towards one of the operating rooms. Thankfully, one of their doctors is already there, a tall Asian woman with sharp features, and she doesn't waste much time asking questions.

“Dina,” she says quickly as she snaps gloves onto her hands. “Get ready. I’ll need you in there.” 

“Yes, Dr. Zhou,” she replies, leaving the tall man with a squeeze to his arm so she can get dressed in proper protective gear. 

“What’s her name?” she hears Dr. Zhou say, the concern clear as day in her voice. 

“Ellie,” the man says with little hesitation.

Just as Dina is dragging an apron on over her head, the door to the infirmary opens and one of the other nurses steps in. 

“I hear there’s someone bleeding and in need of my assistance?” she asks, throwing Dina a forced smile. “I told James to get Dr. Roberts over here, too, just in case.”

“Thanks, Missy,” Dina says, snapping a mask over her face and stuffing her hair under a surgical cap. 

“What exactly is it we’re dealing with?” Missy joins her right away in suiting up, the light brown apron standing in stark contrast to her black skin. 

“Gunshot wound. Don't know how bad yet.” Dina snaps her gloves on last, before leaving Missy in the main room, so she can join Dr. Zhou and the newcomers in their makeshift surgical suite. 

This time, the first thing Dina notices about the unconscious girl is the large, gaping wound in her side. Dr. Zhou has cut open the young woman’s t-shirt, revealing the bloody mess underneath. 

“Missy is getting dressed,” she says, pushing past the large man so she can stand next to the doctor, just in case she needs anything. 

“Good,” Dr. Zhou says, leveling a stern glance at the man. His front is covered in blood, seemingly none of it his own. “Now, sir, you need to get out of here and let us do our jobs. You did right by her in bringing her here.” She must sense his reluctance to go, and Dina feels for him. 

But she also knows that his friend or daughter or whoever she is needs their care more than his right now.

She tries it with words first.

“Look, keeping this place steril is already a nightmare, and you, no offense, you smell like a walking garbage can.” She hopes her eyes convey how sympathetic she feels to his plight. She remembers vividly how terrified she’d been when her sister had been in here with a dangerously high fever. “The best thing you can do for her right now is to let us work.”

She expects him to resist, but instead he just nods his head. Before he goes, he fixes them both with a stare that Dina is pretty sure he wants to be scary. It isn't, though. Instead, he looks terrified.

“Just fix my kid,” he says, his eyes flitting to Ellie once more before he stalks from the room, almost knocking Missy over in the process. 

“Oh damn,” she whispers when he's gone and she can see the damage to Ellie’s side for herself. “That the dad?” she asks with a nod towards the door. 

Dina nods distractedly as Dr. Zhou starts working, trying to anticipate what instruments she’ll need for this operation. 

They don't talk for the next half an hour, not even to discuss the small commotions from outside. The bullet has been recovered, and Dina glances at it out of the corner of her eye. She knows at this point she shouldn't be surprised that something that small can cause so much damage, but she still is. Every time. 

“Kid’s damn lucky,” Dr. Zhou mutters, wiping her hands on a clean towel. “Just a centimeter over to the right and we would be dealing with bone fragments right now.” She shakes her head. “Hand me the needle, Missy. Time to sow Ellie back up.” 

The name hangs in the air while she works on closing up the wound, and Dina takes a moment to look down at the tattooed arm next to her. Until now, she hadn't even spared it another glance, too busy with patching up its owner. She’s pleasantly surprised when she realizes there is a smattering of leaves placed on the light skin, ending in the shape of a moth. There’s blood on the tattoo, somewhat obscuring the view, but Dina can imagine the rest. Briefly, she entertains the thought of Ellie being another omega. The imagery of the tattoo is calming, and much too tame for the alphas she’s known throughout her lifetime. Though she supposes that Ellie could be a beta like her father. 

“Joel.”

It’s spoken softly, sound almost inaudible over Missy’s lively chatter now that the bullet is out. 

“Joel.” 

She hears it again. 

Looking away from the tattoo, Dina lifts her eyes to Ellie’s face, momentarily struck by just how nice it looks, even in unconsciousness. Except, Ellie’s eyes are open, and her head lolls to the left in confusion. 

The next time Dr. Zhou pierces Ellie’s skin with the needle, a scent floods the room that makes Dina want to clap a hand over her nose. Before, it had been concealed by the blood, but now it’s undeniably the scent of _alpha._ Strong, all-encompassing and _pissed._

“Joel,” Ellie says again, her hands balling into fists and her hazy gaze settling on Dr. Zhou, who has stalled momentarily to hold Ellie’s torso still so she doesn't hurt herself further. 

“We need to calm her down,” she says, sending Dina a sharp look that can't be misinterpreted. “I wouldn't ask under any other circumstances.”

Dina watches with worried eyes as Ellie’s left hand grips the edge of the slab in pain and angry confusion.

“No, no, it's okay,” she reassures Dr. Zhou, before rounding the slab and tearing her mask and surgical cap off. She's by Ellie’s head a moment later, hesitating only a second before she’s on her knees with a hand pressed against Ellie’s neck. With their faces so close together, Dina wonders whether Ellie will remember this later. She looks barely coherent through the pain.

“Hey,” Dina says softly, allowing her pheromones to wrap around Ellie. She knows it might not be wise. She isn't mated, and although she doesn't know if Ellie _is,_ giving her such an intense dose of calming omega could end up confusing her down the line. But they don't have enough sedatives around the compound to solve this any other way, and when Ellie’s scent reaches out in turn, Dina leans forward to be even closer. She hates feeling other people's pain and Ellie’s alpha is stronger than any she’s ever felt. 

“You're okay,” Dina whispers to her when Dr. Zhou keeps sewing. Ellie’s fists are still shaking, but at least she isn't trying to move them anymore. Distantly, Dina hopes that this whole thing doesn't backfire, especially when Ellie starts whimpering until Dina rubs her neck with her thumb. 

The last time she helped someone through an operation with her pheromones, the alpha got hopelessly infatuated with her and wouldn’t leave her alone for three months. It had been an uncomfortable and unnerving situation, especially when the alpha had picked fights with others for even speaking to Dina. And his scent hadn’t been half as strong as Ellie’s. 

“I’m Dina,” she says gently, hoping against hope that the girl in front of her won’t be as much of a problem as the guy had been. _Larry._ To this day, he can’t look her in the eye, and Dina can’t say that she minds very much. Those three months hadn’t been fun. “You’re safe. Joel brought you here so we could help you.”

She can feel Ellie settling down, can feel the exhaustion start to take her again, but Dina doesn’t stop pumping out her calming scent. 

“Almost done, Dina,” Dr. Zhou says, her hands moving steadily. “You’re doing great.”

Dina knows that, as an omega herself, the doctor has had her fair share of unpleasant run-ins with unruly alphas. Especially as a medical professional, who so frequently has to work closely with other people. It’s one of the reasons Dina gets on so well with her.

“Just a few more minutes,” Dina says reassuringly to Ellie, whose eyes have started to flutter shut. She looks like she’s trying to stay alert, like she still doesn’t fully trust that she’s safe, and Dina’s heart aches for this girl she doesn’t know and for what she has experienced out there. “You’re safe. I promise you’re safe.”

Their scents have melded so closely together at this point that Dina notices the subtle change in Ellie’s right away. She almost feels the moment that Ellie is drawn back into unconsciousness, and she breathes a sigh of relief when the pain seems to lessen in the other girl’s body. She doesn’t get up from her crouch, though. Not yet. First, she needs to be sure that Dr. Zhou is done with the procedure.

By the time Dina finally gets to her feet, her knees ache and she feels more than a little exhausted. Calming someone down always takes a toll on her, and she’s never had to help anyone whose call was this strong.

“You should go lie down,” Dr. Zhou suggests, moving over to the basin in the corner so she can wash her hands before she slips off her gloves. “Missy and I will take care of the rest. You’ve done plenty already.” Her face is still hidden by the mask she’s wearing, but Dina can hear the kindness and concern in her voice.

“Thanks.” Dina cracks and stretches her back, before turning to the hazardous clothing bin and throwing her stuff inside. Since they're always low on resources, they can't afford to throw out their surgical gear. “What should I tell the dad?” Her eyes sweep the bloody but thankfully no longer open side of Ellie’s body. It still looks terrible, but at least Dr. Zhou’s needlework is neat and precise. 

“Too soon to tell, really, but the kid seems stubborn enough.” The doctor returns to the table while Missy sets about cleaning the stitches and Ellie’s torso. Softly, Dr. Zhou places her fingers on Ellie’s pulse point. Her brows are furrowed, and Dina wonders what her boss is thinking about. “Tell him we’ll do everything we can to get her back on her feet. She’ll need plenty of fluids.”

With a small salute - which earns her a good-natured eye roll - Dina turns towards the door of the operating room. The infirmary isn't full at the moment, so Dina will just grab a nap on one of the many beds in there. She feels the stab of worry for Ellie as soon as she leaves her immediate vicinity, but she knows it will wear off soon. She just needs to get Jesse’s scent back into her nostrils. 

The second she steps from the operating room, the big beta man is in front of her. _Joel,_ if Dina isn't mistaken. But he isn't the only one in the main room. Behind him is a small congregation of people, and Dina is surprised to see Tommy and Maria standing there, looks of worry on their faces. 

“How is she?” Joel asks immediately, looking for all intents and purposes like he wants to crawl out of his skin. 

“The doc says she’s stubborn,” Dina replies, wondering if she should reach out and touch his forearm in a show of support. She’s not sure if he’d appreciate the gesture. Instead, she settles on telling him that Ellie is alive and how hard they're all working to ensure it stays that way.

She’s glad when Tommy steps forward to slap a hand on Joel’s shoulder, although it doesn't help with her confusion. 

“She’ll pull through,” Tommy reassures him, placing his other hand on Joel’s chest. “She always does!” 

With a grunt, Joel steps back from Dina and allows her to move past him. When she does, his nose perks up, and she knows he can smell Ellie on her, and that it puzzles him. She’ll definitely have to take a shower before meeting Jesse for dinner at his place. Joel doesn't stop her, though, and Dina nods towards Dr. Roberts and Maria, who are talking next to one of the empty beds. 

Dina tries not to disturb them as she chooses the bed at the far end of the room, her bones tired and her mind on the young woman in operating room one. It will be some time before Ellie will be wheeled into the main room - once all of the machines have been attached to her body to monitor her - and Dina doesn't feel awake enough to wait. For now, she feels foolish for using her pheromones to calm her down, but she knows those feelings will fade soon, too. She did the right thing. Besides, Ellie will probably turn out to be some big alpha douche, and that will help speed along the process of disentangling their scents.

Dina is sure of it.

\---

Sleep isn't hard to come by, especially once Dina turns her back on the waiting adults and pulls the blanket a little bit closer to her body. Since she spent the last few years basically living and breathing this place, she’s had to sleep through much worse commotions. 

When she finally wakes again, there’s a slow and rhythmic beeping sound somewhere to her right, and Dina pushes herself into a sitting position to figure out where it's coming from. The yawn she lets out is slightly undignified, but she doesn't have anyone she needs to impress here, so she doesn't care.

“Oh good, you're up,” Dr. Roberts says from next to the beeping heart monitor that had drawn Dina’s attention in the first place. Tall, tan and with long black hair, she’s one of the many women in town that Dina has harbored a huge crush on throughout the years. “I was just about to wake you up. I need to check on Mr. Patterson and didn't want to leave this one alone.” She points down at Ellie, whose saline bag she’s checking absentmindedly. 

Out of the surgery suite and with her face and body wiped clean of blood, Ellie doesn't look as dangerous and imposing as her scent had made her seem, and Dina briefly entertains the thought that she imagined how strong Ellie had smelled. Maybe it had been enhanced by the blood. 

“Is it alright if I leave you in charge of her? Lauren had to run out and check on the guy who came in with her. I think he underplayed how hurt he was,” Dr. Roberts says with a shake of her head. “Missy is still scrubbing the operating room, and I don't want to leave our newcomer unattended. Just in case.”

Nodding, Dina swings her legs off the bed but doesn't get up. She’s not sure what she’ll do with her free time at the clinic yet, and the bed is soft. “Sure thing. I’ll keep Sleeping Beauty company.” 

“Thanks, I don't know how long Lauren will be. If you need anything, just radio it in,” Dr. Roberts says with a smile, before grabbing her medicine bag and walking towards the door. “I’ve left a few slices of Jill’s fruit cake in the office if you want some.” 

Responding with a bright smile and an enthusiastic _thank you,_ Dina watches as the doctor leaves the building. She’ll definitely have some of that fruit cake - Dr. Roberts’s wife makes some of the best inside the whole compound. But first, Dina wants to check in with Missy about how the clean-up is going.

\---

The fruit cake is soft and gooey and melts on Dina’s tongue as she sticks it into her mouth. She lets out a moan of approval as she chews it. 

“Try not to orgasm over it,” Missy says with a chuckle, before sticking her own forkful of cake into her mouth. 

“I’ll orgasm whenever I damn well please, thank you,” Dina shoots back, opting to moan in an even more exaggerated manner after the next bite. 

Missy almost chokes on the cake through her laughter, her hand frantically hitting against her own chest. “Stop trying to kill me,” she wheezes, setting down her plate on the nearest bed. “I’ll report you to the guards.”

Dina is set to respond, her comeback line almost out of her mouth, when they both hear a groan from the bed next to them. Almost as one, they turn towards the sound, watching as Ellie’s mouth opens and closes slowly. She’s still very clearly unconscious, but maybe it won't be too much longer now.

“Looks like Sleeping Beauty is waking up,” Missy says, stating the obvious, an intrigued look coming over her face. “She really is cute, in a sort of half-dead person kind of way.” She studies Ellie’s features with interest, and Dina knows the soft surge of jealousy is because she allowed her scent to crawl all over Ellie during a vulnerable moment. “You know how much I like the asshole alphas.”

Raising one eyebrow, Dina sets down her own plate and fork and steps up to Ellie’s head. “You don't know if she’s an asshole. She might be really sweet. She certainly doesn't look very intimidating.”

“Mhmm,” Missy utters sarcastically, her arms crossing over her chest. “I’ve never smelled an alpha like that who _wasn't_ a big pile of dicks.”

Dina snorts.

“I’ve never smelled an alpha like this, _period,”_ she says, leaning her elbow on the top of Ellie’s headboard. “I just hope this doesn't turn into another Larry.” Dina ignores the way her eyes stray down to the adorable freckles dusted across the back of Ellie’s nose. No asshole should have freckles this cute. Larry certainly didn't have those. “I don’t know if I can keep myself from stabbing someone this time.”

“Just sic your pet alpha on her if she does. He’s gotta be good for something,” Missy says with a half shrug, her eyes finally leaving Ellie’s face and returning to Dina’s. “What else do you keep him around for?” 

With a shake of her head, Dina sits back on the bed next to Ellie’s and picks up her plate and fork again. 

“He’s nice,” she says, thinking of Jesse and his smile. He’s certainly a lot nicer than some of the other alphas their age. Although he can be too overprotective from time to time, and the fights he gets into are juvenile and unnecessary. On some level, Dina is aware that he always makes sure she’s watching before he gets into one, but at this point all it does is annoy her. Their world is dangerous enough without these juvenile tests of strength. 

“Exactly!” Missy says and slaps her hands together. “He’s _boring!”_

It feels a bit like a betrayal when Dina smiles, but it’s not like Missy is _wrong._ In fact, it’s the reason she picked Jesse in the first place. She wears his scent like a protective blanket to keep other alphas from hitting on her, and the fact that he's nice is a bonus she’s glad for. There are always unmated alphas coming through Jackson, and Dina doesn't like the hassle of fending off their advances.

“Maybe you're the one who’s boring and you just can't see it?” Dina says, before sticking her tongue out at her friend. 

“Definitely not.” Missy sits down on Ellie’s bed and looks down at her tattooed, right arm. “Do you think she’d mind if I looked at this more closely?” 

“Probably,” Dina says, fighting against the urge to step closer. She should radio in for someone to send Jesse here. She’s getting really annoyed at these protective feelings for a complete stranger. 

“Yeah, I shouldn't,” Missy agrees, her fingers ghosting across Ellie’s forearm. “I just want to know what kind of fingers are going to be in between my legs soon.”

This time, it is Dina who chokes on her bite of cake, and she almost spews it across the room as she starts laughing. Missy joins in right away, and the sounds of their mirth is loud enough to briefly drown out the beep of the heart monitor. They only notice that something’s not quite right when a hand closes around Missy’s arm and shoves her away from the bed.

It isn't hard, and it barely manages to make her stumble back a step or two, but Dina is more concerned for Ellie anyway. Especially because her teeth are bared and she’s sitting up, her heavy scent filling the room in seconds. 

“Whoa!” Dina says, setting her plate and cutlery down as quickly as she can, before jumping to her feet with her hands outstretched. “Calm down!” 

But Ellie seems to be caught in some kind of pain-induced delirium and isn't receptive to words. Her hands tangle in the sheets as she tries to tear away the blanket, and Dina knows she needs to act fast if she wants to keep her from leaving the bed.

“Stop!” she says as she wraps her hands around Ellie’s wrists and holds onto her, ignoring the threatening growl leaving Ellie’s throat. It’s meant to evoke fear, but Dina feels only the pain. “Stop struggling, Ellie, for fuck’s sake.” 

Meanwhile, Missy has run over to the radio, trying to get either Dr. Roberts or Dr. Zhou back to the infirmary just in case. 

Ellie’s scent makes her seem almost feral, and Dina barely even hesitates before she allows her pheromones to wrap around her again, hoping they’ll prove effective a second time. 

“Calm down,” Dina says again, struggling to hold on. “I know you probably think you're some big tough alpha, but you're _hurt.”_ She’s not sure if the words reach Ellie’s ears, but she knows her scent is helping when she feels Ellie’s arms start to slacken. By the time her back is flat on the mattress again, Ellie's eyes are clearer, though no less full of pain. Her cheeks are flushed and when Dina lets her go, the first thing she tries to do is to touch her side. 

Dina grabs her again. 

“Don't do that!” she says quickly, reasonably certain that Ellie is finally paying attention. “You have stitches.”

“Oh,” Ellie replies, her hand going lax, her pulse thumping strong and steady under Dina’s fingers. “Sorry.”

The words are unexpected, and Dina is taken aback for a second. She doesn't know many alphas whose vocabulary includes that word, let alone for something as mundane as this. It's just as odd as the fact that Ellie isn't pulling away to reassert her dominance. She allows the touch against her wrist, and she doesn't try to scare Dina off again. 

“Where am I?” Ellie asks, eyes flitting around the room, her voice without malice. She doesn't exactly look like she trusts the situation, but she also no longer seems hostile. 

“You're in Jackson,” Dina replies, finally letting go of Ellie’s wrist. She hopes she won't have to force the other girl to calm down with her scent again, because she doesn't know what might happen if they merge any more. Probably nothing good. “Your dad brought you here and we sewed you back up. Dr. Zhou is looking after him right now.”

Ellie’s brows furrow. 

“My dad?” she asks, and Dina leans against the bed, unwilling to move further away. Stupid pheromones. 

“Joel. That’s his name, right?” Dina knows it is, but the confused little look in Ellie’s eyes is making her feel weird inside, and she feels especially soft this afternoon. She knows exactly why, and it’s grating at her.

“Oh, yeah,” Ellie says, her eyes still taking in her surroundings, like she’s cataloguing every exit and possible means of facilitating her escape. “He’s not my dad.” Her eyes take in Missy, and Dina expects her to change, become more defensive perhaps. For the moment, Dina’s scent will be familiar to Ellie, safe almost, but Missy is a stranger. A potential threat. She expects Ellie to posture, to puff up, but she doesn't. “He’s just Joel.”

Setting down the radio, Missy takes a tentative step forward. She’s probably expecting the same reaction from Ellie as Dina is, but when Ellie doesn't move, she takes another careful step. 

“He sure seemed like your dad when he was in here earlier. Dude looked ready to murder us if we didn't fix you up,” she says, sending Ellie a calming smile. Her words are purposefully light, but for some strange reason that Dina pushes on the pheromones, she knows Ellie isn't a threat. Her scent certainly isn't hostile anymore, although the sharp smell from earlier still lingers in her nostrils. A potent reminder of what might be hiding just under the surface.

“He does that,” Ellie says, the fingers of her right hand twitching towards her side again. 

“He murders people who don't fix you up?” Missy’s grinning now, and Dina feels a smile creep onto her own lips as she sees Ellie’s eyes roll in their sockets. 

“No,” Ellie retorts, hand twitching even closer now. “He overreacts.” When her fingers get too close to the stitches again, Dina shakes her head and clasps them in between her own. She notes briefly that Ellie’s fingers are rough and calloused, more so than Dina’s own. 

“What did I say?” Dina asks as she squeezes Ellie’s hand. “Don't poke your stitches. We already have to check them for tearing because of your flailing, we don't need you to bleed out while we're waiting for one of the doctors.” She looks closer at Ellie’s face, trying to catch another glimpse of the pain so clearly evident in her smell. “How are you feeling?”

“Like I got shot.” Ellie’s fingers are surprisingly lax in Dina’s grip, and she makes note of the fact that the other girl hasn't fidgeted _once_ since she’d woken up. 

“Not your first rodeo?” Missy asks, throwing Ellie an unmistakably interested look.

Before Ellie can respond, however, the door slams open and Joel bursts in, a look of relief on his face as he spots the fact that Ellie is awake. He hurries over to the bed and pulls up a chair, completely ignoring Dina and the fact that she’s still holding onto Ellie’s hand. 

“How’re you doin’, kiddo?” he asks, folding his hands in his lap and staring Ellie down with an intensity that Dina has rarely seen on anyone's face. 

Slowly setting Ellie’s hand down on the bed, Dina walks over to Missy, who is staring out of the door that Joel has left wide open. With every step, she feels Ellie’s scent cling to her ever-more strongly, like it doesn't want her to go. She doesn't, but she ignores her body's response. 

She makes it to the door just in time to see Dr. Zhou run around the edge of another building, her medicine bag clutched in both arms, her face pinched with determination. Knowing that Ellie will be in good hands, Dina leaves the clinic. She needs a good, long shower.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> also this is an early birthday present for my friend PlushPanda, who was the reason i powered throgh this beast in basically a week
> 
> also beta-d by PlushPanda, because she is The Best^TM
> 
> if you want to support me, find me on tumblr @goshdarnitjay


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks to everyone who got in touch last chapter! 😘❤️🌈
> 
> hope you enjoy this update!

The shower is nice, but Dina isn't sure if it helps her current predicament. It’s why she gets dressed again almost immediately after and goes in search of her boyfriend, who should be at one of the guard towers in Sector E.

She’s fairly certain he's not going to smell Ellie on her, but she doesn't breathe a sigh of relief until she’s in his arms and he doesn't scrunch up his face in disgust. But more importantly, she’s glad her nose is turned into his shoulder when she makes a face at _his_ scent. She still forces herself to breathe it in as deeply as she can, filling her lungs. 

“I heard there are new people around,” Jesse says softly, clearly pleasantly surprised at her sudden appearance. He’s smiling when he pulls back, and Dina manages a small one of her own. “Nice folks?”

“Too soon to tell,” Dina says vaguely, letting herself get pulled along until they're on top of the wall and sitting on a bench. He’s still on guard duty, after all.

“I heard the new guy is Tommy’s long-lost brother,” Jesse reveals, taking Dina’s hand and squeezing it excitedly. She raises one eyebrow at this new piece of information. “Guess they're gonna stay here a while.”

It’s not surprising that news of Joel and Ellie have already spread around the compound, but Jesse’s words trouble her. If Joel is Tommy’s brother, surely they won't want to leave even after Ellie is all healed up. And even though she hasn't acted weird yet, Dina doesn't need another person to avoid around the compound.

“I _also_ heard that you helped patch up the kid he had with him,” Jesse goes on, a gleam of pride in his eyes. “Heard you did an amazing job of it.”

It draws a sigh from her.

“Yeah, about that…” she starts, pulling her hand back and sending a grimace his way. “I had to help another alpha through surgery.” She says it with confidence, because she stands by her choice, but she already knows from the way his shoulders stiffen that he’s not going to take it well. “She was getting agitated and we needed to keep her calm.”

Jesse’s fingers curl around the wooden seat of the bench and squeeze, a frown on his handsome face. 

“I don't know why you're the one who has to keep doing this,” he says, clearly trying to keep the anger from his voice. “Didn't you learn anything from Larry?”

His tone immediately rubs her the wrong way, and her back stiffens without her permission. More than anything, it’s the condescension that grates at her. The implication that she made either decision without regard for the consequences.

“And what do you suggest I should have done differently? Let her keep struggling until she died?” She crosses her arms over her chest and glares him down. His anger smells acrid in her nose, and she wipes the back of her hand across it.

It’s just too bad he notices.

“You still want to go back there right now,” he accuses her, as though she chose these side effects for herself. As though she isn't aware of how unfair this situation is for him. “I can't believe you did this _again.”_

She pinches the bridge of her nose.

“You're being a child,” she says, annoyance pushing heavily on her already terrible mood. “Someone was shot and I helped them calm down. It’s not like I made out with her. There was nothing intimate about the fucking scent sharing.”

With a scowl, he mimicked her pose. 

“Larry said it felt pretty fucking intimate to _him,”_ he retorts, and her patience, which she had been clinging to by the skin of her teeth, finally snaps. What she needs from him right now isn't to be blamed, what she needs is closeness so that she can get over this unnecessary byproduct of helping someone out of a bind.

“You know what, why don't you come find me when you're over that little temper tantrum you're throwing,” she snarls, before getting to her feet and glaring down at him. “Someone is alive because I helped them stay calm. That has nothing to do with your stupid alpha ego.” Once she’s done, she turns on her heels and storms off, glad when Jesse doesn't follow her. This isn't the first fight like this they’ve had, but they never fail to leave her drained. 

She knows that he gets jealous, but not telling him would have been an even worse decision. Especially if the same thing _does_ happen with Ellie and she ends up as some kind of pheromone-struck stalker. 

Not for the first time, she wonders if she should give up on dating alphas altogether and just settle down with a nice beta.

\----

She doesn't settle down. 

Instead, she forgives Jesse that same evening when he comes over to her apartment and apologizes for the things he said to her.

Taking him back is easier than letting him go.

\----

Ellie is asleep.

Her eyes are closed, her scent twirls around her in lazy comfort, and she doesn't even twitch when Dina changes out her saline bag.

It’s been four days since Joel came running into Jackson, and it’s also been two days since Ellie started confusing the hell out of Dina. 

For one, she hasn't touched a single one of the fidget toys that Dina has left by her bedside. None of the rotating and spinning objects have managed to capture her attention. Mostly, she’s been staring at the ceiling, hanging out quietly with Joel, or she’s asked Dina to prop her up on pillows so she can read tattered, old comic books. It’s unexpected, and it makes Dina wonder how someone with such a strong aura isn't constantly vibrating out of their own skin with energy. She can't remember the last time Jesse even _touched_ a book, let alone sat down for hours to actually _read_ it.

And then there's the fact that Ellie barely speaks to her. It doesn't bother her, exactly, and it’s not like Ellie is actively being a dick about anything. She answers when Dina asks her something, and she smiles when Dina says hello in the morning. It’s just that she doesn't contrive reasons to talk about nothing the way Larry had while he had been bedridden. She’s just _there._ Seemingly in her own world. Completely unaffected by the fact that Dina basically drowned her in pheromones. 

All in all, Dina has reached but one conclusion: Ellie is _weird._

She’s not yet sure if it’s a good thing. At the moment, she’s shifting between being charmed by the fact that Ellie isn't acting like a fifteen year old knucklehead, and being annoyed that she’s the only one still struggling with her chemical attraction. Maybe that’s why she's switched shifts with Miriam so she can work nights.

It's harder for Ellie to be odd and intriguing when she's just sleeping. Although even when she's dead to the world, her body stays unnaturally still, like it knows moving would draw too much attention to itself. When really, drawing attention to oneself is the one basic Alpha Rule.

Even Jesse, nice and milquetoast as he is, can't help bragging whenever he feels the other alphas are getting too much attention.

Gnawing on her bottom lip, Dina picks up one of the fidget cubes to play with it herself. With a scent like Ellie's, earthy and overwhelming, raw instinct should have been ravaging her. The same way it has been ravaging Dina's attention span.

"Stupid," she whispers, tugging up Ellie's blanket a little, even though it hasn't slipped.

Who knew _being_ Larry would suck so hard?

\----

When Ellie is finally released, Dina opens up every window in the clinic and brings in a bunch of flowers she's picked from Jill Roberts's garden - with permission, of course! 

At the beginning of the week, Joel was assigned his own house along the main road - a leftover from when Mr. and Mrs. Albatross moved to a different settlement - and Dr. Zhou has decided that keeping Ellie confined to the sick bay is no longer necessary. Dina almost threw them all a party, although she's sure none of them would have gotten just _why_ exactly.

It'll be much easier to avoid Ellie when she isn't constantly around. 

Being aloof and unapproachable. 

And so goddamn calm it makes Dina want to shake her sometimes.

She feels like she would have been making much more progress in severing this weirdly clingy scent bond if Ellie was just a little bit more generic. A bit more of a jerk. It's to the point where even Missy - alpha chaser that she is - has declared that Ellie has officially vanished from her _Hit it and Quit it_ list. Which is quite the accomplishment to Dina, who has never ever known Missy to be a quitter. Not in that way.

The level of annoyance she feels distracts her so much, she barely realizes she's brought Ellie's pillow to her nose.

She blinks.

Missy blinks.

Then, the pillow is in Missy's face.

"Shut--" Dina rages.

"Scent loser!" Missy calls out even louder, before grabbing a pillow from behind her and delivering her own smack to Dina's side. 

From the office, Dr. Zhou's tired face peeks out at them.

"Girls, please," she says with some exasperation, her demeanor stern enough that the pillows are immediately lowered. "Not where the patients might see you."

Dina isn't sure, but there might be a smile on the doc's face. 

As soon as Dr. Zhou has retreated, Dina sticks out her tongue. "Fuck you," she says, stripping Ellie's pillow of its casing. 

"Hey, hey, I'm not the one sniffing things over here because I want boring alpha dick," Missy shoots back at her, before taking the hospital blanket and stripping it as well. "It's not my fault you make yourself such an easy target."

Dina rolls her eyes, but doesn't bother defending Ellie's supposed boring-ness. That would only get her in more trouble with Missy. Although the idea that Ellie is boring makes no sense to Dina. There's boring like Jesse; safe like Jesse, predictable in his patterns. And then there's Ellie's weird stoicism and her apparent refusal to act like the dominant alpha she clearly smells like. If Dina didn't know any better, she'd think Ellie was playing one massive prank on them all. That is, if she didn't also know that alphas who acted like alphas were notoriously bad at keeping secrets. Especially if they were proud of themselves for being sneaky.

After looking out the windows to make sure no new patients are coming, she turns back to Missy and gives her another whack upside the head with the pillow.

Can't hurt.

\----

It's about a week after her release that Ellie shows up at the mess hall for breakfast for the first time. She still walks gingerly - like she's been _shot_ \- but there's a sturdiness to her posture, a reassurance in her movements, that gives Dina shivers. 

Little ones.

Hardly worth mentioning. 

"I wonder what her deal is," Jesse says before Dina can use him as a way to divert her attention. The other people at their table all turn in unison, making Dina groan inwardly at their lack of subtlety. "There's something off about her, right?"

Dina bites her tongue, because she's not sure what exactly Jesse is trying to accomplish by bad-mouthing the new girl before they've even exchanged a single word. Ellie doesn't glance over to them, even though she _must_ smell them - the table is mostly full of half-grown alphas in the prime of their stench - and that only seems to vex Jesse further.

"She's too calm," Bobby agrees from Dina's right, the spoon with his oatmeal hovering halfway between his mouth and the bowl. 

"I know," Jesse agrees, latching onto the comment. "It's like she's a serial killer or something." His leg jiggles as he eyes Ellie, who loads a piece of bread and cheese onto her plate, hands steady and sure. 

"I'd like to see you get shot and then bounce around the compound," Dina grumbles unhappily, her spot of annoyance entirely separate from the scent bond that is still hanging around in the back of her mind. She hates it when Jesse and the others decide to pick on someone else.

At her words, Jesse looks at her and furrows his brows.

Then, something ugly comes over his face.

“You’re just saying that because she got her stench all over you,” he says, glaring at her.

Putting down her knife and fork, Dina tries to keep herself calm so she doesn’t cause a scene.

“You know what,” she says, getting up from the bench and looking down at her boyfriend with ever-growing annoyance. “If you can’t tell the difference between helping someone and lusting after them, I don’t know what we’re doing here.”

Without another word, she walks away from the table, her shoulders tense and without another glance at either Jesse _or_ Ellie. Although, since Ellie has been acting so out of character for an alpha, Dina wouldn’t be surprised if she hadn’t noticed a thing in the first place.

\----

After the fight, Dina seeks comfort at the stables.

Jill is already brushing down one of the many horses they have, and Dina joins her silently.

It takes almost thirty minutes for her to calm down, and Jill seems to sense her change in mood, because she smiles at Dina and throws her a small bag that is full of homemade cookies.

“Thanks,” Dina replies, just before she stuffs the first cookie into her mouth and crunches down.

“No worries,” Jill replies, patting the soft nose of Beaker, the only white horse in the stables. “You want to talk about it?” She smiles when Beaker nudges at her face, and Dina feels the last seeds of pain fall away.

“Jesse being a dick,” Dina says by way of explanation, sitting down on one of the benches that have been placed strategically around the place.

Jill hums in understanding. As a beta, she probably never had the same issues with scent as Dina and the others, but aside from being Dr. Roberts’s wife, she’s also always been a solid presence of comfort in Dina’s life.

She doesn’t reply straight away, giving Dina more time to gather her thoughts.

“He’s mad because the new girl isn’t acting like he thinks an alpha should act.” She pulls her feet onto the bench and wraps her arms around her knees. “But honestly, I wish he would stop being so jealous. Especially if he doesn’t have a reason to.”

She snags another cookie from the bag and bites off half of it.

“Ellie hasn’t done anything to him, or to me. She doesn’t even know I exist, and he still acts like she’s about to steal me away in the dead of night.” Dina knows they’re barely nineteen years old, but a part of her wishes Jesse would act more mature for his age. “It’s her business if she doesn’t act like the others want her to.”

Putting down her brush, Jill leads Beaker back to his stall.

As soon as he’s settled in, she walks back over and sits down next to Dina. Her hand is steady and kind as she places it on her shoulder, and Dina gives her a small smile, trying to convey that she’s mostly fine. Or that she will be fine again.

“I’m sorry you’re having trouble with Jesse,” she says, squeezing Dina’s shoulder and shaking her back and forth a little. “Do you think he’ll get over it? Or do you think this will be a problem?”

With a shrug, Dina puts her chin on her knees.

“I don’t know what makes him angrier, honestly. The fact that Ellie isn’t acting like Larry, or that I’m not willing to put up with his bullshit about her.” She rolls her eyes and puts her feet back on the ground again. “It’s not like I’m hanging all over her, you know? I just didn’t let him bad mouth her, when he hasn’t even spoken a single goddamn word to her.”

Jill wraps her arm around Dina’s shoulder for a moment to squeeze her a little tighter. Her beta scent is faint and pleasant to Dina’s nostrils, and she lets herself get coddled for a few more seconds than necessary.

“I wish he didn’t act so damn territorial. He never used to.” She scratches the tip of her boot against the floor of the stables, pushing the dirt back and forth. The main reason why Dina likes being around Jesse is that he isn’t so aggressive, and yet at the moment he can’t seem to get himself under control.

“He’s probably wondering what role in the compound the new arrival is about to play. She hasn’t really been around long enough to establish herself, so the young alphas are a little on edge. At least that’s my guess,” Jill offers, pulling back her arm and gesturing for the bag of cookies so she can have one herself. “I wouldn’t worry about it too much. And if Jesse doesn’t settle himself down, you can always go from there.”

“Yeah,” Dina agrees, thinking of the unusually strong scent that Ellie exudes. Maybe she should be a little more understanding of Jesse’s predicament. She grimaces. “I just hope he gets over it soon.”

After another minute of snacking, they both get back to work, and Dina feels a little bit better about the situation.

Besides, if Jesse doesn’t get control of himself, there’s always the option of breaking it off with him. It’s not ideal, because Dina likes having someone, but she’s not about to waste her time on a person who doesn’t trust her enough not to act like a jealous dick.

\----

Jesse stops by at the stables in the afternoon to apologize to her, and Dina doesn’t make it difficult for him. She’s too tired to put up much of a front when he tells her he’ll try to do better, and she accepts his hug when he offers it.

She doesn’t say anything to Jill when he leaves, who looks like she’s trying not to pay attention.

Still, Dina is grateful for her presence, and sends her a small smile when Jesse has left them again.

It doesn’t fix everything, this apology, but she hopes he’ll at least try to act less like a thirteen-year old knucklehead alpha who can’t control his damn hormones. It’s unlikely, but she can hope.

\----

Another week passes before Ellie starts to be incorporated into Jackson life.

Dina watches from the sidelines as she and Joel are introduced properly at the compound meeting Tommy calls. Again, she’s struck by how still Ellie is as she stands up front, her hands stuffed in her pockets and her shoulders broad and defiant. Somehow, Dina can smell her scent all the way at the back of the room, and judging by Jesse’s tense shoulders, so can he. She suspects that he’s been talking about Ellie to their other friends behind her back, but he hasn’t broached the subject with her again.

She observes as the other young alphas around her drum their fingers on their shins and knees. Some are sitting, some standing, but all of them are in constant motion. The older alphas are a little less energetic, but even they seem posed to jump out of their skins if the need should arise.

“Ellie and Joel, aside from bein’ family, are assets to this community, and I hope y’all will welcome them with open arms,” Tommy says, his hand on Joel’s shoulder and his smile encouraging as he looks around the room. He and Joel are both betas, although Joel makes up for it by being tall and intimidatingly broad-shouldered.

Maria smiles, too, before clapping her hands together and drawing everyone’s attention to her.

“Now, everybody, back to work! Scram!” she calls good-naturedly, and some of the others laugh at her frank dismissal.

Dina, who has been leaning against the back wall of their conference room, pushes herself into an upright position and follows Ellie with her eyes as she steps up to Tommy and asks him something. But before her eyes can linger, Jesse nudges her with his shoulder and the moment is broken.

They’re both outside before Dina has a chance to gage if Jesse has seen where her eyes were focused.

When he doesn’t say anything, she decides it’s better not to bring it up.

“Guess I was right,” Jesse says, lingering outside the door and tapping his feet on the ground. “They’re stayin’.” He squints down at Dina, who looks purposefully away from the front door, out of which more people spill. Beyond, Ellie and Joel stand with Tommy and Maria, deep in conversation.

“Yeah,” Dina says noncommittally and shrugs with her left shoulder.

He lets it go, whatever it is he’s trying to get at, and together they walk down the street and towards their respective jobs. When she knows he’s distracted, she chances a glance back and sees Ellie leave the building, too, her face turned towards the sky.

“Yeah,” Dina says quietly to herself, stuffing her own hands into her pockets and looking down at the ground.

\----

With a whistle, Dina puts down one of her cards.

Missy scowls.

“You think you’re so clever,” she mutters, before putting down one of her own cards.

With a shrug and a smirk, Dina puts down the next, leaving her with only one.

“I’m going to smack you,” Missy grumbles as she’s forced to draw from the stack.

Dina is about to put down her final card, when there’s a knock at the open front door, and they both turn towards the noise.

“Hey,” Ellie says, cradling a bleeding left arm. “Um, could I get something stitched up?”

“Sure,” Missy says before Dina can react, although she doesn’t sound eager, just confused. “What happened?”

They both abandon their game of UNO and Missy throws Dina a pair of surgical gloves.

“Oh, nothing,” Ellie replies, looking a little bashful as she sits down on the chair that Missy has indicated for her. “Just a misunderstanding.” She waits for Dina to spread out a clean towel before she puts down her arm and shows them the jagged line across it.

“A… misunderstanding?” Dina asks skeptically, snapping on a mask and squinting down at the bloody limb that Ellie has presented to them. The smell of the blood is strong, but not strong enough to overpower Ellie’s natural scent. It swirls around the room, as strong and yet nonaggressive as ever. “How does a misunderstanding lead to you nearly being knifed to death?”

Ellie barely winces when Dina places her hands on the non-cut skin and turns the arm back and forth to gage the depth of the wound.

“You’re right, this will need stitches,” she says absentmindedly, unaware that her body has turned towards Ellie on instinct. When she looks up, she finds herself lost in green eyes that gaze down at her with pain.

“Good thing we’ve got supplies,” Missy says, surreptitiously kicking Dina so she snaps out of her daze. She sets down a bowl of warm water and a clean cloth so Dina can start working on the slowly oozing wound in between her fingers, and Dina is grateful for her friend’s presence.

“We don’t really have local anesthetic,” Dina says apologetically as she dips the cloth in the warm water. “If you need something to bite down on, just say the word.”

Ellie shakes her head.

“No, it’s okay. I’m used to it,” she says without pause, and Dina halts before the cloth can make contact with her bloody skin.

“Okay,” she says, trying to keep the interest out of her words. “Didn’t you and Joel live in another compound before you came here?” Ellie is their age, Dina knows that much from gossip around town, and she’s also heard that when Ellie was fourteen, she and Joel briefly stayed in Jackson for a week or so.

Ellie scratches at the side of her face with her good hand, putting her tattoo on full display.

“Not really,” she says, frowning down at the sight of Dina cleaning her wound. Next to them, Missy sits down on a chair not too far away, observing the way Dina’s steady hands slide back and forth. They usually take turns stitching people up, but Dina is half-convinced it isn’t her turn this time. “We moved from place to place, mainly.”

“Shit,” Missy says, crossing her legs and looking at Ellie with a little more interest than before. It irks Dina, although she tries to quash that feeling as soon as it rises. How long can a forced scent bond last, _really?_ “That sounds dangerous. Why didn’t you settle down anywhere?”

Her question seems to make Ellie uncomfortable, and Dina sends her a reproachful look.

“You don’t have to answer that,” Dina says quickly, putting aside the cloth and inspecting the cut that has been properly revealed. It doesn’t look as bad as she initially feared. Ellie must have hit one hell of a bleeder. “I’m actually still more interested in how you got this cut.”

Missy scoffs.

“Oh, so it’s okay for you to ask about _how_ someone got knifed, but I can’t ask about what happened _before_ the knifing?” she asks, her words teasing and only mock-serious. Dina wishes she could stick her tongue out at her friend, but her mask gets in the way.

“Fuck you,” Dina says instead, and they both laugh.

Ellie, whose eyes move back and forth between them, blinks a few times.

“Sorry,” Dina says to her, but Ellie has a small smile on her lips that nearly takes her breath away.

“S’okay,” Ellie replies, leaning back in the chair while Dina picks up the needle and thread and readies herself for the stitching. “I don’t mind talking about it.” Her left hand flexes on the towel, and Dina tries not to stare at the muscles of Ellie’s forearm.

“See?” Missy gestures at Ellie. “She doesn’t mind talking about it.”

Dina rolls her eyes.

“Ignore her,” she says, picking up the needle with the needle holder. “And don’t let her talk you into sleeping with her. Even if she makes you feel sorry for her. It’s not worth it.”

At her words, Missy lets out an undignified squeak of protest, and while Ellie is distracted, Dina sticks the needle through her skin to start the first stitch. 

“Why are you _such_ a dick?” Missy asks, crossing her arms over her chest. “I would punch you, if that didn’t mean causing Ellie even more horrific damage and pain.” She unfurls a little to put a hand over her chest. “Thank god I’m such a good person.”

Dina snorts behind the mask.

“Yeah, thank _god,”_ she says sarcastically, absentmindedly stroking Ellie’s forearm with the fingers that are holding it still.

“Your hate does not penetrate this perfect skin,” Missy says as she flicks a piece of imaginary lint off her shoulder. “Seriously, though, Ellie. How the fuck did you manage to get yourself knifed? Isn’t this, like, your second day of properly working or something?”

“Um, yeah,” Ellie replies, scratching at the side of her face again. “I’m afraid I’m not great at social etiquette.”

Dina and Missy share a _look._

“Which one of the knuckleheads did it?” Dina asks, already annoyed beyond belief. “They didn’t pull an actual knife on you, did they?” She ties off the second stitch and starts on the third, taking care to keep her work tidy and clean, just like Dr. Zhou and Dr. Roberts taught her.

“No,” Ellie reassures her, an embarrassed note creeping into her scent. “He just shoved me and I landed in a pile of scrap metal.” She shrugs. “No big deal.”

“I think your forearm would disagree, sweetie,” Missy says, waving her hand in the direction of where Dina is tying off the third stitch.

“I guess,” Ellie agrees, her right knee starting to jiggle for a moment before she stills it with her hand. It’s the first time Dina has seen the alpha jumpiness on her, and Ellie’s reaction to it confuses her. So she _does_ feel the constant energy, but she suppresses it? Why? “I probably shouldn’t have worked so closely with his omega girlfriend, or something. I don’t know. She was showing me how to properly sow the beetroot seeds and then suddenly he’s on me. I didn’t mean anything by it.”

Missy leans closer and pats Ellie’s shoulder.

“No need to justify yourself, tough girl. The alphas in town can be a bit much sometimes.” She claps Ellie a few more times. “They’re probably intimidated by your smell. They don’t know how to handle someone like you.”

When her words don’t seem to make Ellie feel any better, Dina squeezes her wrist until she looks at her.

“You should trust Missy’s judgement. She’s sampled all the alpha wares in town, so she knows what she’s talking about.” She winks at Ellie, who looks a little lost for words, but when Missy scoffs again, there’s the hint of a smile on Ellie’s lips and that makes it all worth it.

“I get no respect in this clinic,” Missy laments, although she’s smiling, too. “Not that you’re wrong, necessarily. We can’t all be as boring as you and Jesse.” She turns to Ellie conspiratorially. “These boring sacks have been dating for four years. _Four years._ I don’t know how she stands him.”

“I can hear you,” Dina gripes back, although her attention is focused on Ellie’s reaction. For some dumb reason, it matters to her what Ellie thinks about her dating someone.

“You hear me, but you’re not _hearing_ me, you know?” Missy says, hitting Ellie’s shoulder again. “Ellie gets it.”

“Um,” Ellie says, looking back and forth between them, looking like she _doesn’t get it at all._

Shaking her head, Dina ties off the last stitch and severs the surgical string.

“Whatever,” she says, putting down the needle holder and needle and walking over to the sink to wash her hands. Once they’re clean, she returns to wrap the wound, working diligently and without much fanfare. “Come back in two weeks so we can get these bad boys taken out, okay?”

“Sure,” Ellie says, still looking a little confused to have been involved in their squabbling. “Thanks.”

“No worries,” Dina replies, taking off her mask and giving Ellie a smile. “Just make sure not to accidentally hit on anybody’s girlfriend again, yeah?”

“I’ll try,” Ellie promises, although when she gets to her feet and squares her shoulders, Dina isn’t surprised that the other girl got herself shoved. She carries herself with too much confidence, and her unnatural stillness only makes her seem more formidable.

They say their goodbyes, and Dina picks up the bowl of bloody water and carries it over to the sink while Missy puts away their surgical kit.

As soon as Ellie’s back is no longer visible, Dina turns to her friend.

“Why do I get the feeling this won’t be her last visit?” she says with a grimace.

Missy laughs.

“Girl doesn’t know she’s a walking pile of sex appeal. That’s her problem,” Missy offers, a thoughtful look crossing her face. “Maybe I should reconsider my stance on her. She might be worth a ride after all.”

Dina rolls her eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> poor ellie getting herself shoved for being Prime Alpha Meat -- how will she survive
> 
> thanks again to PlushPanda for beta-ing! Today is actually her birthday! Happy Birthday, Buddy 😘❤️🌈
> 
> if you want to support me, find me on tumblr @goshdarnitjay


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i just helped a friend move for last eight hours and now i just want to diiiiiiiie i hope you enjoy the chapter

A few days later, Ellie shows up in the infirmary again.

This time, Dina is by herself, because Missy and Dr. Zhou have been called away on urgent business with one of the pregnant women in town.

There’s a polite knock on the doorframe again, and Dina looks up, already hoping to see a head of dark hair and a pair of green eyes.

She’s not disappointed.

“Hey,” Ellie says, holding a rag to her forehead. “Sorry to bother you again.”

Dina shakes her head.

“What happened this time?” she asks, beckoning Ellie closer with her hand and gesturing at the same chair that Ellie sat in when she was here last. The rag is bloody, but it doesn’t seem nearly as bad as her arm did, which is still wrapped and stitched up.

“Misunderstanding,” Ellie repeats, looking bashful as she removes the rag to show a nasty cut above her left eyebrow. “Dalton was struggling to open a jar, so I took it from him to help. He didn’t like that very much.” She wriggles her fingers in the direction of her forehead. “He was wearing a ring.”

Grimacing, Dina tips Ellie’s head back a little so she can look at the cut in the light.

“It’s superficial,” she says, working hard to keep her hands from wandering along Ellie’s skin. “I can’t believe he hit you just for that.” She drops her hands from Ellie’s freckled face so she can get a fresh bowl of hot water.

Ellie shrugs.

“I’ve mostly been around betas my whole life. I’ve never had to worry about hurting some other alpha’s pride.” She tugs at the bandage around her arm, her shoulders hunched forward just a tad.

Returning with the bowl, Dina sits herself down opposite Ellie and makes a grab for a clean pair of surgical gloves. She’s both strangely happy to see Ellie and dismayed that it is under these circumstances.

“Did you and Joel ever run with other people? At all?” she asks tentatively, remembering how uncomfortable Ellie had been before when Missy had asked her about her past.

With another shrug, Ellie shakes her head.

“Not really,” she says, leaning forward so Dina can reach her forehead better with the cloth to clean the wound. “It’s been pretty much just me and Joel, ever since I first presented.”

Dina tries not to cup Ellie’s face too tenderly as she starts to wipe away rivulets of blood.

“That sounds lonely,” she says quietly, taking in the long, straight nose and high cheekbones of the girl in front of her.

“Sometimes,” Ellie admits, her volume just as low. “But we had to.”

With furrowed brows, Dina is on the verge of asking why, when two people bustle into the clinic.

The taller of the two is Tommy, but the other one—

“Dalton has something to say to you, Ellie,” Tommy calls from the door, causing Ellie to turn towards him, giving Dina an excellent view of her striking profile. “Don’t you, Dalton?”

The smaller of the two, a young alpha who’s barely eighteen, looks down at the floor for a moment, before lifting his eyes to Ellie’s.

“M’sorry,” he grumbles, hands stuffed in his pockets.

“Sorry for what?” Tommy prompts him, his expression one of exasperation more than anger.

“M’sorry for hittin’ you,” Dalton says a little louder, his dark eyes settling on Ellie. “You were just tryna help and I shouldn’t have overreacted.” He looks genuinely sorry, too, and if this were anyone but Ellie, Dina would expect them to posture.

But instead, Ellie shrugs again.

“It’s alright,” she says, her scent remaining strong and present but not domineering. To Dina, it seems like it would be easy for Ellie to make Dalton submit. He’s younger, more inexperienced. But Ellie doesn’t make a move to intimidate him.

“Okay then,” Tommy says, clapping Dalton on the shoulder. “Run along now, son. And don’t let me hear about something like this again.”

“Yes, sir,” Dalton says quickly, before giving Dina and Ellie a nod and rushing from the clinic with his proverbial tail between his legs. Despite the fact that Tommy is a beta, he’s respected in his community and his word is law.

With a shake of his head, Tommy places his hands at his waist and walks closer to Ellie.

“Sorry about him,” he says, nudging Ellie’s shoulder with his fist. “I try to teach those kids some manners, but it’s hard. Their hormones are all over the place and they just don’t listen sometimes, you know?”

“Yeah,” Ellie agrees, although she’s almost the same age as Dalton and  _ she _ manages to keep herself in check, from what Dina has seen. She wonders if it was all that time alone that turned Ellie into such a being of stillness. “No hard feelings, man.”

Tommy ruffles her hair, and while Ellie ducks away, Dina squeaks in protest.

“Careful! I haven’t had time to put a band-aid on her scratch!” Her hands are on Ellie’s shoulders before she can stop herself, shielding her body from Tommy’s good-natured ribbing. If he notices how odd her behavior is, he doesn’t mention it, but he does take a step back.

“Sorry, sorry,” he says with a grin. “But to me, Ellie will always be that snot-nosed fourteen-year-old who didn’t let no one tell her what to do. Had a mouth like a sailor, too. Drove my brother crazy.”

“Whatever,” Ellie replies, bringing her hands to her hair and only succeeding in smearing a little of the blood further into her hairline.

With a grin, Tommy claps Ellie on the shoulder one last time, before taking his leave.

“Don’t want to hold you up any longer than necessary,” he says, before bidding them both goodbye and leaving the clinic. In his wake, there remains a slightly awkward silence, wherein Dina removes her hands from Ellie’s shoulders and Ellie rights herself and continues to try to fix her hair.

“Stop that,” Dina says without any fire, grabbing Ellie’s wrists and pulling them down. “You’re just making it worse.”

“Worse than Tommy making jokes about me? Impossible.” But Ellie does drop her hands into her own lap and waits obediently as Dina continues to clean the wound. At this point, Dina really shouldn’t be surprised that Ellie doesn’t feel the need to assert her dominance in situations where Dina takes charge, but it still rattles her a little.

She doesn’t comment on it, but she files it away for later.

“You know what,” she says instead, as she puts a butterfly band-aid over the cut and smooths down the edges. “I think we should be friends.”

Sitting back, she checks her work one last time, before smiling at Ellie, who nods.

“Sure, if you want,” she says, and it’s refreshing. From any other alpha, there may have been a snarky comment along the lines of  _ if your alpha agrees with it. _ But Ellie just leans back in her chair and pokes at the band-aid, like a big idiot, and Dina finds herself weirdly charmed at the whole idea.

Friends with an alpha.

Why not?

\----

What she has to consider about friendship with an alpha, of course, is that she’s already dating one, and they can be pretty territorial. To put it mildly. So Dina knows she will have to talk to Jesse about it, before she actively starts to hang around Ellie, lest he think she’s planning on cheating on him. Or worse, before he starts a fight with Ellie, which would be mortifying.

Opportunities are hard to come by, however. 

At the moment, Jesse seems to be in a bad mood whenever Dina sees him. He grumbles when they have guard shift together; he complains about the food in the mess hall; he doesn’t want to have sex, even when Dina offers herself on a silver platter. It’s odd, and Dina spends more than a few minutes from time to time sniffing herself to see if Ellie’s scent is clinging to her, despite the fact that she hasn’t been around her in several days.

Dina tries to talk to him about it, but he’s not responsive to any of her queries, which only frustrates her more. It’s also the reason she finds herself at the stables more and more often, having breakfast with Jill and Beaker, and occasionally with Dr. Roberts.

One less chance for Jesse to ruin her day before it has even started.

\----

It takes two weeks for her to suss out the problem.

She hears it from Missy, because of course she does.

“Apparently, he’s been stuck with Ellie as a patrol partner,” Missy reveals during their weekly game of UNO.

They’re both sitting on the couch in the back room of the clinic, facing one another and with the piles of cards in between them. It’s been days since Ellie had her stitches removed, and Dina is glad to see that the skin is healing nicely and probably won’t scar too badly.

“Fuck,” Dina says as she rubs her forehead. “Really?”

“Yep,” Missy replies, popping the  _ p _ for dramatic emphasis. “I think it’s doing his head in, having to work with someone so high above his status.” Missy lifts her hands into the air, indicating Jesse on a fairly low position, right above the sofa cushions, and moving her hand for Ellie higher and higher until she almost can’t reach anymore.

Dina feels bad for laughing at her boyfriend, but she can’t stop the giggle.

“That’s so mean,” she says, putting her cards face-down on the couch.

“And yet, you know I’m only telling the truth.” Missy shrugs, putting down her own cards, too. Most days, they barely finish the game because they get lost in their gossip, and this one doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, either. “I don’t think he knows how to deal with constantly having some other alpha’s stench in his nostrils.”

“It is a little bit like running into a wall,” Dina agrees, feeling almost bad for Jesse. “No wonder he’s been on edge.” With a sigh, she slumps back onto the arm of the couch and rubs her temples. “This is so stupid.”

“And he probably still thinks you want to jump her bones, too,” Missy says casually, mimicking Dina’s position and sprawling over the other arm.

“Ugh, probably.” Dina groans into her hands.

A moment passes, then Missy nudges Dina’s leg with her foot.

“Do you?” she asks innocently, pushing herself up on her elbows so she can look Dina in the eye.

“Do I what?”

“Do you want to jump her bones?” Missy asks without much fanfare, and Dina rubs her forehead.

“No, of course not,” she says without much thought, although the question has been floating around in the back of her mind.  _ Does _ she want to? Or does the scent bond still linger? She can’t tell, and she’s not about to ruin a good relationship for a confusing ball of emotions for an even more confusing alpha. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

Besides, she and Ellie have only just decided to be friends, and she’s not about to ruin  _ that, _ either.

“Okay, if you say so.” Missy doesn’t sound convinced, and Dina doesn’t feel like she’s being particularly convincing, but her friend lets it go for once.

Dina isn’t ready to talk about it, anyway.

\----

A couple of days later, Dina decides to chance it and enters the mess hall a little late. She hopes she won’t regret forgoing the quiet of the stables, but she feels a little bad for Jesse’s plight. Just a smidge.

As soon as she goes inside, she spots him and their group of friends sitting in their usual place. A few tables over, Ellie sits by herself, her back turned to the others and a sandwich in her hands. Dina knows that it has been hard for her to make new friends, and she wonders how violently Jesse’s head would explode if she decided to sit with his patrol partner instead of him.

What she worries about more is how the others would treat Ellie as a result, so she gets her breakfast and parks her tray next to Jesse instead.

“Morning,” she says by way of greeting the others, and she doesn’t squirm out of Jesse’s grasp when he tugs her close for a moment to kiss her temple.

“Morning, babe,” he says, before letting her go and continuing his own breakfast.

He seems to be in a better mood, and Dina is glad to see it.

“Got anything planned for the day?” she asks, picking up her own sandwich and biting into it. Next to her plate, a mug of chocolate milk is just waiting for her. Today, the kitchen has outdone itself, and Dina enjoys the taste of lettuce and goat cheese.

With a smirk, Jesse puts down his cup of juice.

“Going out on patrol again,” he says, his chest puffing out. “We’re marking out a new route today.”

Opposite them, another alpha who is about two years their senior turns his face around so he can catch a glimpse at the back of Ellie’s head.

“You still stuck with crazy girl?” he asks, and it’s the first time Dina has been privy to this little nickname. It makes her want to stop eating, but instead she picks up her mug and takes a sip. Not even the spoonful of sugar she’s added to the bitter chocolate mixture can cover up how uncomfortable she feels.

“Yeah, for now,” Jesse confirms, swishing his juice around in his cup. He looks over to Ellie, too, who seems utterly lost in her own world. “I’ve been trying to switch, but I can’t exactly tell Tommy that his niece sucks rusty buckets.”

The other alpha snorts a little too loudly, and a few people at the other tables look over to them.

“Fuck, yeah. Don’t even try that,” he says, stabbing at his plate of scrambled eggs. “Did you hear that he made Dalton apologize to her for defending himself?” He shakes his head.

Dina puts down her mug.

“Defending himself from what, Antoine? Ellie just wanted to help him with a jar. He overreacted,” she says, keeping her voice low. Her words sound terse even to her own ears, and she works hard to keep her teeth from grinding.

Antoine scoffs.

“Tommy doesn’t get it, and neither do you. You don’t show up another alpha like that. She deserved the punch,” he replies, fixing Dina with an unimpressed look. “And if she had any pride, she would’ve punched him back.”

“Agreed,” Jesse chimes in, holding out his fist for Antoine, who bumps it with his own. “She’s totally weird. I’m glad we haven’t seen any infected out there so far. I bet she’d totally wimp out on me and leave me to fend for myself.”

Annoyance thrumming in her veins, Dina stares down at her sandwich. Suddenly, it doesn’t look as appealing anymore.

“I highly doubt that. You don’t survive for five years outside of any sort of safe zone without knowing how to take down infected,” Dina says, gripping the edge of the table.

“What?” Jesse asks, his shoulder turning stiff. “What are you talking about?”

“Ellie and Joel. They spent the last five years travelling the country by themselves. She told me,” Dina says, hoping she isn’t breaking Ellie’s confidence by discussing her background. It feels important to defend her, and not just because she agreed to be Dina’s friend.

“Oh, she  _ told _ you, did she?” Antoine says, putting his chin in his hand and glaring at her. “How long has she been here now? A month? I swear to god she’s hit on every single one of the unmated omegas ever since she stepped foot in this place.”

“And she still thinks this weird shtick she’s putting on will work on any of ‘em.” Jesse picks up his sandwich and bites into it. He continues talking through chews. “She reeks like a skunk, but there’s something off about her.”

Hackles fully risen, Dina gets to her feet.

“How about you guys mind your own fucking business,” she says, perhaps a little too loudly to be appropriate. “Maybe then you’d understand that people can be different without there being anything wrong with them.”

Grabbing her tray, Dina steps away from the bench and marches through the mess hall.

When she gets to Ellie’s table, she slams down the tray next to her and sits down.

Ellie barely flinches, but she does seem surprised when she looks up and finds Dina fuming next to her.

“Hey,” she says, moving her own tray over a little to give Dina more space. “You okay?”

Drawing in a deep, cleansing breath, Dina rubs her temples.

“No,” she says, before picking up her sandwich and angrily tearing a chunk out of it with her teeth.

The frown on Ellie’s face is cute and soothing.

“Okay,” Ellie says, before going back to her own sandwich. “If you want to talk about it or anything, I can totally listen to what you have to say. Can’t promise I’ll be able to help, but I’ll try.”

For once, her scent is calming instead of enticing, and Dina has the stupid urge to curl up under her arm and soak in that scent until the anger has fully melted away. It feels like a friendly urge, more than a sexual one, but she knows it wouldn’t be read as such by her group of friends.

“Just my friends being assholes,” Dina says instead, and gives Ellie a small smile.

Ellie turns her head to look behind them. She blinks, then turns back to the front.

“Yeah, they’re totally glaring at you,” she says, before finishing her sandwich. “I don’t know what the issue is, but maybe you shouldn’t be sitting with me. They’re not my biggest fans.”

Dina rolls her eyes.

“They can fucking cope,” she says, nudging Ellie’s elbow with her own. “Besides, we’re friends now, right?”

“Right,” Ellie replies, her lips twisting into a smile of her own.

\----

Missy finds them before Dina is finished, and the three of them have a discussion about the upcoming patrol that Ellie and Jesse will be sent on later today. While Jesse seemed excited, Ellie looks slightly worried that they’ll be on their own on an unfamiliar stretch of land.

She doesn’t say that it’s because Jesse tends to want to show off to her, but she makes a remark that gives Dina exactly that impression.

It’s the reason why Dina goes to seek out Tommy after breakfast.

\----

Shimmer whinnies softly as Dina brushes her side and pats her neck.

“I know, baby,” she says, leaning further into the horse and giving it a hug. “Today sucks.”

As if in solidarity, Shimmer lowers her head and curls it around Dina’s back. At the moment, it’s just her and the animals at the stables, since Jill is out to get some more feed from the silos. Dina takes in the silence that’s peppered with whinnies and snorts and tries not to think about anything else outside of the work she’s currently doing.

Considering that she’s hugging Shimmer instead of brushing her, it’s not working out too well.

When two or three minutes have passed, Dina moves away from the embrace and continues the brushing.

“You’re looking especially pretty today,” she tells Shimmer, before reaching into the small satchel at her side and pulling out a carrot. “And you’re being so good.” She holds the vegetable out to Shimmer and is rewarded with teeth chomping down happily. “What a good girl.”

The whole thing is just about gone when heavy footsteps reach her ear.

“Dina!” an angry voice calls, and she rolls her eyes in anticipation.

“I’m here with Shimmer,” she calls back, patting the horse’s neck soothingly.

Soon after, Jesse comes into view, his frown bigger than his face.

“What the hell did you say to Tommy?” he demands, stopping a few feet away from her and clenching his fists at his sides. “Why the fuck isn’t he letting me go out on patrol today?”

His body is pumping out angry pheromones, but Dina finds herself less affected by it than she usually is. Maybe it’s the fact that his scent has nothing on Ellie’s, or maybe it’s her annoyance, but she doesn’t cower in front of him.

“I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true, Jesse,” she defends herself, still stroking along Shimmer’s neck to keep her calm. “You have an issue with Ellie, and as long as you can’t be a normal person around her, you shouldn’t be running unfamiliar routes together. That’s it.”

His face goes red, but whether it’s from anger or embarrassment, Dina can’t say.

“You’re supposed to be  _ my _ girlfriend,” he gripes, crossing his arms over his chest. “You’re supposed to be in  _ my _ corner!”

She rubs her temple.

“I  _ am _ your girlfriend and I  _ am _ in your corner. I’m worried about you, too. What if the two of you get into trouble and you get yourself hurt because you want to show off?” She shakes her head. “I’d rather you be mad at me than  _ dead _ because you charged guns-blazing into a situation you’re not equipped to handle without backup.”

Her words seem to take the wind out of his sails, and he drops his shoulders.

“I…” he starts, bringing a hand to the back of his neck. His scent grows weaker, less domineering, and Dina lets out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding. “I didn’t think about it that way.”

She shakes her head.

“Maybe you should start to think with your brain from time to time, instead of letting your alpha pride do the talking. You’d realize that Ellie is just trying to find her place in Jackson and that she’s not trying to steal me away, or whatever other stupid fantasy you’ve cooked up in there.” She drops her hand from Shimmer’s neck and goes back to brushing her.

“I’ll, uh, I’ll think about what you said,” he promises, although his words sound a little rehearsed. After weeks of drama, Dina can’t help but feel she’s being placated rather than taken seriously. “I’ll see you at lunch?”

“Sure,” she says, listening to his footsteps as he retreats from the stables.

Somehow, this is starting to feel like a recurrent nightmare, rather than a relationship.

\----

The new route is successfully scouted.

Dina finds out about this from Ellie herself, who swings by the clinic on her way back into town.

She waves to her and Missy and gives them a thumbs up. Maggie isn’t with her, which means that they’ve both made it home in one piece, and Dina is glad to see that Ellie’s limbs and face all seem to be intact. The wound over her eyebrow has closed, too, and looks to be on the mend.

“Look at you,” Missy says with a smirk, leaning on the broom she’s using to sweep the floor. “Big bad alpha bringing home the bacon.”

Ellie smirks, and the easy way with which the three of them are communicating makes Dina feel warm and happy inside. At least here, there is no drama.

“I’m not sure what you’re trying to say, but I’ll take it,” Ellie replies, wiping at a bit of mud on her cheek. “Maggie said there’s going to be a bonfire tonight. It’s to celebrate the expansion of Jackson’s territory, I guess. Are you guys going?”

A grin flashes across Missy’s lips, while Dina’s own smile starts to feel a little wooden.

“Did Maggie invite you to go with her, hot shot?” Missy asks, walking forwards and poking Ellie’s belly with the stick of the broom. “We let you go on patrol with a pretty lady one time, and you come back a kept woman?”

Batting at the broom, Ellie frowns.

“What? No, she just told me it’s happening,” she defends herself, her cheeks taking on a pretty red color. “Stop poking me.”

Relief washes over Dina at her words.

“Yeah, we’re going to the bonfire,” Dina says, saving Ellie from whatever other friendly ribbing Missy had in store for her. “The whole town is going, pretty much. We all have too much to eat and too much to drink. It’s a good time.”

“Sounds like it,” Ellie agrees, taking a step away to get out of the range of Missy’s broom. “I’ll see you both later, then.”

“See you later,” Dina says with a smile, returning Ellie’s wave as she walks away. Once her friend is out of sight, Dina goes back to sorting through the pile of medical supplies one of the other groups scavenged from a nearby home.

Behind her, Missy continues her sweeping, though her silence is ominous.

With a sigh, Dina puts down the box and looks behind herself.

“What?” she asks, an edge of exasperation in her words.

“Oh, nothing,” Missy replies innocently, pushing a small pile of dirt from left to right. “Just your face.”

Bringing her left hand to her cheek, Dina frowns at her friend.

“What about it?”

Missy shrugs.

“It’s tragic,” she says, then smirks. “Not as tragic as your crush, though.”

Letting out an annoyed snort, Dina rolls her eyes.

“Jerk,” she says.

“Dick,” Missy replies.

\----

They wrap things up at the clinic at six in the afternoon. Tonight, Dr. Zhou and Missy are on stand-by, so Dina is free to drink as much as she wants, and she can’t say she’s not looking forward to relaxing a little.

She doesn’t bother changing her clothes, opting instead to show up in a ratty pair of jeans and a ripped short-sleeved sweater that’s a little too big on her.

“You’ll need to drink double tonight,” Missy informs her as they reach the place where Maria and a few others are setting up the bonfire. “Let me live vicariously through you.”

With a snort, Dina sits down on one of the logs that have been placed strategically around the place.

“Keep dreaming. I know how much you drink,” she replies, patting the log until Missy sits down next to her. “Maybe you can trick Ellie into drinking your fill, though. She’s just soft enough to fall for it.”

“A soft alpha. Who knew?” Missy picks up a stick on the ground and starts drawing shapes in the dirt.

“There had to be one, didn’t there? There’s always one,” Dina replies, looking around her to see if she can spot Ellie in the crowd of stragglers coming towards them. Instead, she sees Jesse, surrounded by a few more of their friends.

_ Here we go, _ she thinks.

At lunch, he was still pensive after their post-breakfast row, but she’s not sure if it was performative or if he was genuinely thinking about why his outburst was unnecessary. Now, though, he looks happy as he play-wrestles with one of the other alphas.

“Uh-oh, it’s the knucklehead-brigade,” Missy whispers, having caught up with where Dina’s attention has drifted off to. “Want to place a bet on who will pick a fight after a few too many and will bring the nice festivities to an end?”

“Shut up,” Dina replies, poking Missy’s side with her elbow.

They’re both still grinning by the time Jesse and the others reach them, and Dina tries not to feel annoyed when he plonks down next to her and curls his arm around her shoulders.

“Hey, babe,” he says, pressing a big kiss against her head that makes his alpha friends holler and jeer.

Rolling her eyes, Dina makes eye contact with Missy, whose expression is less than impressed.

“Hey, Jesse.” She pushes him away a little but doesn’t extricate herself from his embrace entirely. He probably wouldn’t receive it well if she embarrassed him in front of his alpha friends, so she stays tucked into his side. “Did you have a good afternoon?”

“Yeah,” he replies, accepting a bottle of beer from one of his pals. “We worked on fortifying the east wall.” With the bottle in hand, he flexes his bicep. “They needed these guns at home.” He sends a smirk to Antoine. “Better to send the  _ spare _ on new route plans.”

They laugh, and Dina shrugs off his arm. Thankfully, he’s too busy with his flexing to notice. A part of her can’t wait for when he is older and has grown more mature. She knows some alphas never grow out of their competitiveness entirely, but she can’t imagine Jesse always being like this.

“See?” Missy says, leaning back on the log and giving Dina a long-suffering look. “This is why I ride them, but I don’t take them home.”

“Smart.” Dina looks around, and finally spots Ellie. She’s already here and standing with Maggie and Kat at one of the bar tables that are scattered across the town square. Both Maggie and Kat are betas, and they smile at each other and at Ellie as they talk in hushed tones. Something in Dina shifts, and she finds herself envious.

“Tommy said I’ll be going out again tomorrow,” Jesse offers to Dina once his flexing is finished and his arm returns to her waist. It’s no less possessive, but at least it isn’t as overtly territorial as before, so Dina allows it. “Antoine and I will be running the same route as I was supposed to today. Secure the perimeter.”

“Oh?” Dina asks, watching idly as Missy gets to her feet and walks over to the other end of the square. It’s where they’re serving the drinks, and she wishes she had thought of getting up first. It would have given her an excuse to say hi to Ellie on the way back.

“Yeah. Apparently Maggie’s group didn’t have enough time today to finish scouting,” he says, clearly careful to avoid the issue of Dina’s new friend.

Humming in acknowledgement, Dina looks up at his expectant face.

“Cool,” she says, trying a little harder to show enthusiasm for her boyfriend’s assignments. “Just remember to stay safe, even if the route is mostly pre-scouted.”

Next to Jesse, two of the other alphas start sniggering.

“Yeah, remember to  _ stay safe,” _ one of them says, wiggling his eyebrows.

“Dina needs someone to boss around, and no one else would do it,” the other joins in. They high five, and Jesse scowls at them, while Dina rolls her eyes.

Instead of letting her go, Jesse tugs her in closer.

“You’re just jealous,” he shoots right back, a smug grin crossing his lips. “Because you  _ don’t _ have an omega.”

No matter how he intends it, it hits Dina in all the wrong places.

Pushing off his arm, she gets to her feet and stomps away.

Behind her, she hears several voices.

“Dina!” Jesse’s voice rings loudest.

“Yeah, I don’t know why I wouldn’t want  _ that,” _ another voice follows.

“You need to teach her some manners, bro,” a third jeers.

Fuming, Dina joins Missy at the bar and orders herself a whiskey. She’ll need it if she’s supposed to survive this.

“Ruin your night already, did they?” Missy asks as she sips at her unspiked juice.

“No,” Dina grumbles as she accepts the whiskey and nods to the person behind the bar. As soon as her eyes are back on the crowd and the growing bonfire, she swallows a mouthful and grimaces as the drink burns down her throat.

“Yeah, you’re looking totally zen,” Missy replies, wrapping her arm around Dina’s shoulders.

After another gulp, Dina brings a hand to her face and pinches the bridge of her nose.

“I just don’t know what’s going on with him lately. He never used to be this much of an asshole. It’s like he has to prove himself all the time now.” She looks up at Missy with a helpless little frown. “Do you think I should break up with him?”

With a sigh, Missy tugs her a little closer, offering her as much of her comforting pheromones as she can.

“How about you shelve that question until tomorrow morning, hm?” she asks, before taking Dina by the arm and pulling her back into the crowd. “For now, I think we should try to have a little fun, before we make any split-second decisions we can’t take back.”

“Okay,” Dina acquiesces, letting herself be dragged towards the bar table where Ellie is still standing with Maggie and Kat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *says something witty*
> 
> *collapses into the shower*
> 
> beta-d by the great PlushPanda!
> 
> If you want to support me, find me on tumblr @goshdarnitjay


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im so fucking tired from work
> 
> thanks so much to everybody who's been hanging out in the comments and kudos :) i really appreciate it

Somehow, Dina ends up squished between Kat and Ellie on a log.

They abandoned the bar table when it got darker and found themselves a seat close to the bonfire. Smoke and sparks float around them, and Dina is on her third glass of whiskey. It may not be the wisest decision, but she doesn’t have it in her to care.

Ellie, meanwhile, has opted for beer, and is nipping on her second. She seems perfectly sober, and Dina is half-mad and half-glad.

“So, did you run into any infected?” Missy asks, leaning forward so she can look past Maggie, Kat and Dina to look at Ellie, who is sitting furthest away from her.

“Some,” Ellie replies, before nipping at her beer again. The fire is reflected in her eyes, and Dina has to put her hand down on the log to steady herself a little. Somehow, the smoke only seems to enhance Ellie’s scent, and it has been wafting dangerously close to Dina’s nose and mouth for the last two hours.

“Some?” Missy asks with a snort. “Jeez, I’m fucking riveted.”

“There were three,” Maggie adds helpfully, leaning her elbow on Kat’s shoulder as she leans closer to Missy. She, too, has partaken of the whiskey, and much faster than Dina. “You should have been there. Ellie fucking  _ decimated _ them.”

Scratching the side of her face, Ellie shakes her head.

“I just took them down,” she mumbles into her bottle, and Dina feels strangely vindicated. A part of her wants to rub it in Jesse’s face. “No big deal.”

“She’s being modest,” Maggie insists, wiping a strand of her black hair out of her face. “She went all alpha prime out there. It was kind of hot.”

“Shut up,” Ellie grumbles, and Dina notes that there’s a flush to her neck.

Laughing, Missy reaches past them so she can push Ellie.

When Ellie only sticks her tongue out at her, Dina smiles and leans a little further into her friend’s bubble. And while Missy, Maggie and Kat go back to talking about patrol, Dina feels tempted to put her head on Ellie’s shoulder.

“I swear, you’re the only alpha I’ve ever met who doesn’t preen,” she whispers, turning her face further and drawing in Ellie’s calming scent.

“Sorry?” Ellie replies, fiddling with the bottle in her hands. “Joel didn’t exactly have a handbook.”

With a smile, Dina reaches out and places her hand on the inside of Ellie’s right wrist.

“I meant that as a compliment,” she says, surprised at how hot Ellie’s blood seems to be running. Her skin is scorching to the touch, and Dina feels a twinge somewhere below her belt.

_ Danger, danger, danger, _ her brain screams, but she doesn’t pull away.

“Oh,” Ellie says, her eyes resting on her lap. “Thanks.”

Admittedly, the alcohol is making Dina feel a little foggy, but she still realizes that leaning in and pressing her nose against Ellie’s neck would be a bad idea. So instead, she sits up a little straighter and pulls back her hand.

“I’m really glad we’re friends,” she says, lifting her almost empty glass to her lips.

“Me, too,” Ellie says, her smile beautiful and soft.

\----

After Dina’s fifth glass, Missy cuts her off.

It’s for the best.

“But  _ mom,” _ Dina whines as she’s pulled away from the bar, a glass of water in her hand.

“You’ll thank me tomorrow,” Missy says, guiding Dina through the crowd of drunk bonfire attendees. “As will Dr. Zhou, when she doesn’t have to get you to vomit up your alcohol poisoned stomach contents, you fucking dumbass.”

Pouting, Dina lets herself get dragged back to the log. Kat and Maggie have vanished since Dina got up to get herself another drink, but Ellie is there, staring into the fire. Her jawline is too sharp, Dina decides.

“Have you ever cut someone with that?” she asks, gesturing at Ellie’s face.

Confusion plays across Ellie’s features, and she gets to her feet to help Missy plant Dina’s butt on the log. Her hands, so warm and steady, do things to Dina that she’s not ready to admit to herself. She waves them both off, and almost falls off the back of the log in the process.

“Maybe it’s time for you to go to sleep, sweetie,” Missy says, one of her hands placed on Dina’s back to keep her steady.

“I’m fine,” Dina reassures her, trying to put her hand on the log and missing by a few inches. “I don’t want to go to sleep! This is fun!”

“Is it?” Missy asks, sitting down next to her with a sigh.

“Yeah! Right, Ellie? This is fun!” Dina says, hand reaching out and only managing to snag a bit of Ellie’s flannel.

“Sure,” Ellie placates her, sitting down on her other side.

After her second beer, Ellie stopped drinking altogether, so she’s holding up much better than Dina, who’s not sure if she should slump against Missy or Ellie, or both. Her body feels wobbly enough to need the support, but before she can make up her mind, a yell can be heard from the other side of the bonfire.

“I didn’t say anything to her!”

A loud voice cuts through the night, and Missy lets out a long-suffering sigh when the uncomfortable sound of a fist meeting a cheek can be heard.

“Here we go,” Missy groans, before getting to her feet. “This is why I’m  _ fucking sober.” _

Ellie’s hand replaces Missy’s on Dina’s back, and Missy looks worried for a second.

“Can I trust you to take her home?” she asks Ellie, and Dina has never seen her look so intimidating. “No funny business?”

“Yeah,” Ellie says with a gulp. “I mean  _ no. _ No funny business. I promise. I’ll make sure she gets home safe.” Her face looks earnest, and she honest to god crosses her heart.

Missy scrutinizes her for another moment. Then, as more punches can be heard flying across the square, she rolls her eyes and leaves them.

From behind the fire, Dina can hear her voice, as well as a few attention-grabbing claps.

“Alright, knuckleheads. Time to break it up. Come on!”

\----

They’ve only just left the square when Ellie seems to realize that she doesn’t know where Dina lives.

“Are we even going in the right direction?” she asks, turning her face left and right as she keeps one hand on Dina’s shoulder to steady her. She’s taller than Dina by a few inches, and so Dina finds herself staring mostly at Ellie’s collarbone, which is left bare by her t-shirt, the neck of which has come askew.

“Hm?” Dina asks, drawing her attention up to Ellie’s face.

“Where do you live?” Ellie asks, stopping in the middle of the street and looking down at Dina.

“Oh, um,” Dina replies, looking back and forth and up at Ellie again. “Do we have to go home?”

Ellie squeezes her shoulder.

“Yeah, I promised Missy I’d get you home safe, and I’m not about to end up on her bad side. She’s kind of scary,” Ellie says, scratching the back of her neck and looking away from Dina’s eyes. Even in the relative darkness of the night, Ellie’s freckles stand out on her cheeks.

“Scary for an omega?” Dina asks, because she expects it.

“What? No, for a person who is smaller than me,” Ellie says without thinking, and Dina takes a moment just to look up at her strange new friend.

“Where did you grow up before you started travelling with Joel?” Dina asks, sliding her hand along Ellie’s left forearm until she reaches her fingers. Without much thought to how Ellie might interpret her actions, she takes her hand, intertwining their fingers.

“Boston,” Ellie replies, following behind Dina like a lost puppy when Dina starts walking. “In one of the QZs.”

“Didn’t they have any omegas there?” she asks, turning down a side street until they reach the playground. Predictably, it’s deserted, and Dina sways only a little bit as she sits down on one of the benches scattered around the place.

“I’m sure there were some, but the QZ wasn’t like what you have here. It wasn’t a community,” Ellie replies, taking a seat next to Dina. Her hand is still warm, and Dina holds on tightly and pulls it into her lap. “I’ve never lived in a place like this before, with so many different rules on how to act. I mean, like I told you, I hadn’t presented until I was fourteen. And then I started travelling with Joel and it was just me and him.”

Without giving it much thought, Dina starts drawing shapes and circles on the inside of Ellie’s left wrist with her free hand. With their sides pressed together, Dina feels every one of Ellie’s steady breaths.

“Well, however you ended up this weird, I approve,” she says, leaning her head against Ellie’s shoulder. It brings her closer to Ellie’s scent, and she briefly closes her eyes and breathes it in, imagining it wrapping around her.

In response, Ellie tips her head to the side and rests her cheek against Dina’s hair.

“Thanks,” she says, squeezing Dina’s hand. “You’re alright, too, I guess.”

Dina snorts, and slaps her open palm against Ellie’s chest.

\----

The morning after the bonfire, Dina wakes up feeling strangely refreshed.

After five glasses of whiskey, one of which she barely remembers, she expected to wake to a splitting headache, and she was fully ready to take responsibility and suck it up. Instead, there’s birdsong in her room and a blade of light that illuminates a foot next to her bed.

Blinking, Dina follows the foot up a leg, along ripped knees of a pair of jeans, and then along a lap. Further up, there’s a tattoo on a right forearm, and the visual of a sleeping Ellie, head resting against the back of one of Dina’s more comfortable chairs. She’s snoring slightly, no doubt due to the position of her head, and Dina takes stock of herself.

She’s on her side, still in her clothes from last night. Her shoes and socks have been removed, but there’s a flannel wrapped around her under the blanket, too. Checking once more that Ellie is definitely asleep, Dina pulls up the collar of the flannel and sniffs. Her eyes close instinctively, and she snuggles further into a ball as she basks in the soothing scent.

_ I’m safe, _ she thinks.  _ Ellie kept me safe. _

On her nightstand, a glass of water is waiting for her, and Dina slowly sits up, keeping the flannel tucked close to her face. As quietly as possible, she picks up the glass and takes a sip. Her mouth feels predictably like something furry has slept in it overnight, but the water helps. Now that she’s upright, the alcohol is making itself known a little, but not nearly as badly as she thought it would.

Lifting her nose in the air, she tries to pick up any other scents, but Ellie is all there is. Her scent seems to have mixed and melded with Dina’s own, and she brings her hand to her neck. No bite mark. Of course not.

It was a silly thought.

Finishing the water in small sips, Dina takes the opportunity for what it is and uses the time she has to observe Ellie’s sleeping form. She’s in a dark t-shirt that clings to her torso in all the right places, and a pair of jeans that have seen better days. Her face is relaxed, and the look she sports as she sleeps is dumb, but adorable.

Rubbing the back of her neck, Dina puts aside the empty glass when she’s finished, and gingerly sets her feet on the ground.

A floorboard creaks, and Ellie’s eyes are open before Dina can so much as blink.

For a second, the room fills with a thick wave of pheromones, akin to the first time Dina smelled them. Now, however, they aren’t masked by a heavy stench of blood, and Dina is hit with the full brunt of  _ alpha. _

It’s almost enough to make her bare her neck.

Then, as soon as it starts, it’s over, and Ellie blinks and sits up clumsily.

“Hey,” she says, voice thick with sleep. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” Dina says shakily, trying to ignore that just a glimpse of Ellie’s unrestrained alpha scent is enough to get her wet. “Thanks for taking me home last night. And for the water.”

They’re close, and Dina finds herself staring at Ellie’s lips.

“Don’t worry about it,” Ellie replies, before getting to her feet, for once giving into her nervous energy. She too has taken off her shoes, though she’s still wearing a pair of mismatching socks. One dark, one bright. “I hope it’s okay that I stayed over. I didn’t want to leave you alone, just in case the whiskey didn’t agree with your stomach.”

Pulling out her hair tie, Dina shakes off the last of her embarrassment.

“Of course it’s okay. I’m glad you stayed,” she says, getting to her feet and swaying just a little. Again, Ellie is there to steady her, her hands gentle and respectful on her arms. “Evidently, I needed more help than I realized. I’m sorry you felt like you had to, to be honest.”

Shaking her head, Ellie lets her go, though not without first making sure that Dina won’t start swaying again. “I really didn’t mind.” She takes another step back and stuffs her hands into her pockets. “I’ll get out of your hair now. I have patrol this morning, so I should probably get ready.”

“Maybe I’ll see you at breakfast in the mess hall?” Dina asks, fiddling with the bottom of Ellie’s flannel, strangely reluctant to let her go.

“Definitely,” Ellie says, taking another step back and nearly tripping over her own shoes.

With a smile, Dina sees her out.

\----

It’s perhaps a bit mortifying how long Dina spends snuggling into Ellie’s flannel before she takes a shower. And even after she’s clean, she traces her fingers along the soft front, having left it folded next to her pillow.

She should give it back, but she pretends to forget it in her room when she leaves to get breakfast.

On her way there, she sees two of her alpha friends staggering out of the clinic. One of them has a split lip and the other a black eye, and Dina doesn’t linger to say hello. She hopes they’ll have learned their lesson. Dr. Zhou will probably have chewed them out for their stupid behavior, and Dina doesn’t pay them any more mind. Especially because she’s glad neither of them is Jesse.

Ellie’s scent still lingers in her nose, even when she enters the mess hall. It sticks with her as she gets in line, and she lets her eyes trace across the many tables laid out in the room. It seems that Ellie isn’t yet finished with her morning routine, but Jesse is already sitting at their usual table.

With a tray in hand, Dina joins him and two of their friends. Antoine is there, but he looks tired and hungover, so he barely waves at her when she sits down.

“Morning,” she says cheerfully, and Jesse waves his hand.

“Keep it down, please,” he rasps, his face close to his sandwich. “It’s too early.”

With a smirk, Dina picks up her juice and nips at it triumphantly.

“I guess some of us can’t hold our liquor,” she says, not bothering to modulate her voice. “Who knew an omega was the most alpha of them all.”

“Ha-ha,” Jesse grumbles, taking a bite of his sandwich and chewing so slowly Dina wonders if his jaw muscles have disappeared since yesterday. Usually, Dina would be equally mean-spirited after a night of drinking, but something about Ellie’s presence seems to have soaked up most of the alcohol. Maybe she’ll have to ask her friend to stay over every time she drinks from now on.

Feeling smug and unconcerned, she starts in on her own sandwich.

She’s half done with it, when Jesse finally rights his back.

“I’m never drinking before patrol again,” he announces, like it will make a difference. “You should have told me to stop.” He looks at Dina, who puts down her sandwich and picks up her cup instead.

“Really?” she asks, raising one eyebrow. “I’m not sure you remember, but you didn’t seem too receptive to suggestions last night. Especially not from your omega girlfriend.” She sends a look towards Antoine, whose eyes are closed and who is massaging his own temples.

“We were just kidding around,” Jesse argues as he reaches for her, his face pressing to her neck and breathing in deeply. “You know we don’t mean anything b—” His words cut off mid-sentence, and Dina feels his shoulders stiffen against her.

“What?” she asks, looking around, trying to find the source of his distress.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” he asks, voice low as he pulls away from her.

“Jesse?” she frowns at him in confusion, and he glares at her.

“Did you spend the night with her?” he asks, his hands clenched on his knees.

“What are you talking about?” Dina brings a hand to her neck, where his face has just been, and wonders how Ellie’s scent could possibly  _ still _ be lingering there.

He doesn’t say anything else, because his attention is drawn towards the door of the mess hall, where, at the worst possible moment, Ellie walks in. She’s dressed in a fresh flannel and a new t-shirt but is wearing the same jeans from the night before. Her hair is wet, and she doesn’t look at anything except the queue.

“Jesse,” Dina says pleadingly as her boyfriend gets to his feet. “Jesse, stop.”

“The fuck I will,” he growls as he storms in Ellie’s direction.

“Shit,” Dina says, jumping up just in time to see Jesse’s fist fly in the direction of Ellie’s face.

\----

Ellie is distracted, her eyes on the offerings of this morning’s meal. She doesn’t see Jesse coming, and before she can react properly, his fist has already slammed into her. She stumbles away from him, blood flying from her mouth. She looks stunned to have been attacked in a place where she should have felt safe, and Dina lets out a gasp of pain for her.

“What the hell, man?” Ellie asks, wiping across her face with the back of her hand.

She takes a step away from Jesse, clearly not angling to continue the fight if she doesn’t have to. For the first time, Dina sees a behavior that has only been described to her: Ellie’s reluctance to defend herself.

“Don’t pretend like you don’t know what this is about,” Jesse growls, his scent more pronounced than Dina is used to. It burns unpleasantly in her nostrils, and she jumps forward to catch Jesse’s arm before he can lunge at Ellie again.

Despite his anger, his pheromones hold nothing against Ellie’s, who is trying to deescalate the situation in any way she can. She fills the room with her calming scent, which only seems to make Jesse angrier.

He shakes Dina off, and she nearly falls as he advances on Ellie.

This time, though, Ellie is prepared, and avoids his punch. Instead of retaliating, she grabs his arm and guides his momentum to the side so he stumbles past her. With a few steps, she’s next to Dina.

“You okay?” Ellie asks quickly, and when Dina nods, Ellie moves in front of her in a clear show of protection. Her back is stiff with worry, her shoulders broad and strong against whatever may happen next. “Jesus Christ, Jesse, calm down.”

“Get away from her,” Jesse says, stalking forward and grabbing the front of Ellie’s t-shirt and flannel. He’s taller than her, and he bares his teeth as he pulls her close. He seems beside himself, and for the first time in her life, Dina is afraid of him. “You think you can come into this community and steal her away from me?”

His words break through Dina like an axe through wood.

“Jesse, fucking stop!” she shouts, shoving at his side until he lets Ellie go. “No one is stealing me away. The only person who makes me not want to be with you is  _ you!” _

He looks stunned, and clarity seems to come back to him in droves. The anger is sapped from his frame, and a furrow appears between his brows. He glances from Dina to Ellie, his gaze lingering on Ellie’s bleeding lip.

“What are you saying?” he asks, regret eating up his scent.

“I’m tired, Jesse. I’m really fucking tired.” She grabs Ellie’s arm and drags her along. “We’re over. Don’t fucking talk to me until you’ve calmed down. Not everything is about your fucking alpha pride bullshit.”

He doesn’t try to follow them.

\----

They don’t talk until they’re at the clinic.

Ellie’s lip is swollen, and Dina goes to fetch her an ice pack.

Dr. Zhou is reading in her office, and barely glances up when she spots Ellie sitting on one of the hospital beds.

“You doing okay, kid?” she asks, continuing to look down at her book.

“Yeah,” Ellie says, wincing a little when Dina comes back to press the ice pack against her mouth.

“Okay,” Dr. Zhou says, leaning forward to push closed her office door and award them some privacy.

Grateful, Dina uses the opportunity to wipe a spurt of blood from the back of Ellie’s hand. She’s not sure what she could possibly say, especially when she feels so damn guilty for all of it. Jesse made his own decision, but Dina feels like a catalyst for his anger.

Meanwhile, Ellie takes away the ice pack and pokes at her cheek with her finger.

“Don’t do that,” Dina admonishes her gently, before moving the ice pack back into place. “Do you want it to swell even worse?”

Lifting one shoulder in a shrug, Ellie looks at the floor.

Suppressing a sigh, Dina gives into her guilt and wraps her arms around Ellie in a hug.

“I’m sorry,” she mutters into Ellie’s flannel-clad shoulder. Even after the altercation, she doesn’t smell like aggression. More than anything, she smells confused and worried. “I’m so sorry, Ellie.”

With what feels like reluctance to Dina, Ellie returns the embrace, keeping one hand on the ice pack. Her other hand, warm and solid, comes to rest on the back of Dina’s neck.

“It’s okay,” she says, squeezing Dina a little closer before letting her go. “It’s not your fault. It’s mine. I should have known better.”

Her words bring Dina up short, and she pulls away just far enough to fix her friend with a look of concern.

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Dina insists, keeping her hands on Ellie’s shoulders. “I should have talked to Jesse more, reassured him that he didn’t need to be worried. Or, I don’t know, maybe I should have broken up with him sooner.” She brings a hand to her forehead and rubs her temple.

“No, I—It’s my scent. It’s different from the others,” Ellie says, staring down at her tattoo and clenching her fist in her lap. “It’s why Joel and I never settled down anywhere, after…” She digs her nails into her palm, her brows furrowed. “It was bound to happen. Joel kept telling me I shouldn’t get too close, and he was right. I’m sorry, Dina.”

“Oh, Ellie.” Dina shakes her head, moving her hands to Ellie’s tattoo and hand, unfurling the fingers and smoothing her own over Ellie’s palm, over the crescent moon shapes in the skin. “This has nothing to do with your scent. Trust me. This was a long time coming and none of it is your fault.”

Shaking her head, Ellie drops the ice pack to her lap.

“You don’t understand. My scent, it—” She’s struggling with her words, and Dina can feel her friend’s pain in every fiber of her being. “It makes them crazy. It just does.” She clenches her jaw, her shoulders hunched forward.

Again, Dina can’t stop herself from hugging Ellie.

“Put the ice back on your cheek, you dumbass,” she whispers against the flannel, shutting her eyes tightly and holding her friend as best she can. “Besides, I like your scent, so what does that say about your stupid theory?”

She hears and feels Ellie shuffle the ice pack back against her cheek and lip.

“It’s not stupid,” she mutters, although her free hand returns to the back of Dina’s neck. Slowly but surely, her tension melts away, and she sinks into the embrace like she hasn’t let herself be held in a very long time.

\----

Ellie goes on patrol, even with a busted lip and an ugly bruise on her cheek. She’s still partnered with Maggie, at least, so Dina doesn’t have to worry about her and Jesse going at it again. Although with the way their fight ended, she doesn’t think Jesse would have started something new.

She spends the morning sitting at the stables and talking to Jill, who brushes down the horses. When Jill turns around for a moment, Shimmer wanders over to Dina, who laughs and feeds her another carrot from her satchel.

At lunch, Dina sits with Missy, and she feels like every pair of eyes in the hall is fixed on her.

Afterwards, she goes back to the clinic, which is where Joel finds her.

“Afternoon,” he says, nodding to her as he rounds the corner of the building. He’s wearing his usual outfit of a pair of jeans, a flannel and a pale tan jacket thrown overtop it. It resembles Ellie’s, and Dina can’t help but take note of the fact that he holds himself like she does, too. Or the other way around.

“Hey,” Dina replies, putting down the surgical mask she’d just been scrubbing in a basin. “Anything we can do for you today?” She tries to find an injury on Joel, but he seems perfectly fine. He looks as intimidating as ever.

“Nah,” he replies, his hands hanging loosely at his sides. “Thank you.” His expression is unreadable, but not hostile, and Dina shakes off her hands and wipes them on a clean towel as she gets up. “I came by to talk to you, actually. Dina, is it?”

“Yeah, that’d be me,” she confirms, looking up into Joel’s face. He’s standing a few feet away from her and makes no move to come closer. It’s a respectful distance, and now Dina knows where Ellie gets it from. “Anything  _ I _ can do for you?”

He shakes his head.

“Just wanted to say thank you,” he offers, and the words sound a little static, like he’s thought hard and long about them. “I heard that you were the one to break up the fight this mornin’, between Ellie and that boy.”

She’s surprised, and it must show on her face, because he stuffs his hands into his pockets and looks at her intently.

“Not everybody woulda done that for her,” he continues, and she feels a flush creep onto her cheeks at his gratitude. “Means a lot.” He nods to himself, and while he doesn’t smile, Dina can sense his sincerity in the way he tips towards her.

“Of course,” Dina says, twisting the towel in her hands. “She’s my friend. And, I don’t know if you heard, but my ex-boyfriend started it. It would have been a pretty shitty thing not to intervene, you know?”

He nods to himself again, and lifts his shoulder in a slight shrug.

“Even so, I appreciate it. I’m sure she does, too.” He glances down at the basin and back at Dina again. “I’ll let you get back to your work. Have a good day now, Miss Dina.”

“Thanks for stopping by,” she says, meaning it. She can’t help but feel like his approval means more than she knows, and she watches as he rounds the building again and vanishes from sight, his broad back a little less stiff than before.

With a smile and a hum, Dina goes back to work on her scrubbing.

She can’t help but feel like she’s gained something today, even with all the drama in the morning.

She’s still smiling by the time Missy comes to join her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Protective Dad Joel Seal Of Approval -- Dina should frame it
> 
> beta-d fantastically by the lovely PlushPanda!
> 
> if you want to support me, hit me up @goshdarnitjay on tumblr


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> guess who got their period last night oops fml i have to work in 2 hours and am in a zoom class rn why on This Day
> 
> anyway dina is having a better time enjoy ch5 i love it

The day after the break-up, Dina finds herself clutching Ellie’s flannel to her chest when she wakes up. Although it was right beside her pillow the previous night, she doesn’t recall grabbing it. Now, though, her nose is buried in it, and she admits to herself that it’s not the worst thing to wake up to, even if it is embarrassing.

When she sits up, she looks instinctively at the chair that Ellie slept in after the bonfire. She hasn’t moved it back to its original position yet. Mainly because she was too tired after work yesterday to do anything but sleep, but also because she likes thinking about Ellie sitting there. Keeping watch. It’s a comforting image.

It also spurs on other thoughts. Less innocent ones. And Dina is made uncomfortably aware that it has been a couple of weeks since she last had sex. Having it regularly usually staves off the heat symptoms, but with Jesse so on the outs about Ellie, she hasn’t had occasion to scratch that itch for a while.

After she takes another lungful of Ellie’s scent, she realizes that  _ this _ is not helping.

Not to mention that it’s mortifying to moon over a girl who has shown nothing towards her but kindness and friendship. There has been zero indication that she’s even interested in Dina, or that she would be willing to hook up. Although from what Ellie’s scent is telling her, it would probably be spectacular.

Slapping both hands to her face, Dina groans into her empty apartment.

She’s being silly.

If she knows what’s good for her, she’ll get another alpha in town to help her out for a few days to reset her cycle. And she’d probably do well not to bother Ellie with something like this if she wants their fledgling friendship to survive. She could probably get Cristina to help her, or Eve. Hell, even a beta like Maggie would do the trick at this point.

It takes another five minutes for her existential crisis to blow over, and when it finally does, she gets out of bed and folds Ellie’s flannel on top of her mattress again. Today, she’s definitely returning it. No matter what.

\----

She leaves the flannel where it is, and trudges to the mess hall in her thick dark jacket, an old pair of jeans, and her black boots. It’s raining today, so she puts up the hood to stave off the drops until she’s inside again.

It’s only when she gets to breakfast, that she realizes she probably shouldn’t sit with Jesse this morning. They were friends before they started dating four years ago, but now with their break-up so fresh, it would just be weird.

Instead, she gets into the queue and lets her eyes wander across the tables that are already occupied. She notes with a twinge in her chest that Jesse isn’t even here. Neither is Antoine, which either means that they’re doing an early guard duty together, or that Antoine is helping Jesse sulk somewhere else.

_ There’s nothing for you to feel guilty about, _ she tells herself as she grabs a fresh tray.

She says it a few more times in her head, hoping the message will stick. Her thoughts only stop spiraling when her nose picks up on a familiar composition of pheromones that makes her turn around.

She spots Ellie at the back of the queue.

Something must be on her mind, because Ellie’s gaze is turned downwards, and her brows are furrowed in thought. Her lip and cheek still look pretty bad, but Dina is glad they got the ice on it as fast as they did, even with Ellie’s unhelpful prodding. She could have turned out a lot worse.

Picking up her full tray, Dina stands off to the side and waits for her friend to move along the line of people waiting. When she’s finished, too, she looks up just in time to avoid crashing into Dina.

“Good morning, stranger,” Dina says with a smile. “Did you sleep well?”

“Could have been worse,” Ellie replies, indicating with her head that they should find a table. Together, they locate an empty one at the back and sit down opposite one another, with Ellie’s back facing the wall. “Although I could only sleep on my right side.” She pokes at her cheek. “Left side is kind of mangled.”

She says it lightly, but Dina still feels that stab of guilt. It must show on her face, because Ellie’s hand reaches out tentatively and squeezes hers for a moment, before pulling back again to her side of the table.

“I still feel bad,” Dina admits, picking up her sandwich.

“Don’t.” Ellie spears a piece of scrambled egg. “Actually, uh, Jesse apologized to me yesterday. After patrol.”

At her words, Dina’s hands stop moving mid-lift, the sandwich hovering awkwardly in front of her face. If she’s honest with herself, this is the last thing she expected to come out of Ellie’s mouth.

“He did?” she asks, a little incredulous.

“Yeah,” Ellie confirms, sticking the piece of egg into her mouth and shrugging. “He said he felt bad for going after me, especially after you told him off. And he said that he was glad you have a new friend.” She shrugs again, now bashful. “It was weird, but also kind of nice.”

Furrowing her brows, Dina puts down her sandwich.

“Wow,” she says, unsure how to feel about this turn of events. She still doesn’t want to get back together with him, but it opens something in her that she hadn’t realized was closed: The possibility for another go at friendship. “Thanks for letting me know.”

With a nod, Ellie looks down at her plate.

“Yeah, I figured you’d want to know. Just in case you want to, you know, take him back or whatever. I told you it’s the scent thing. He’s not a bad guy, it’s just me.” Her voice is quiet, like she doesn’t want any of the other tables to overhear, and Dina can understand why.

Still, she sighs.

“Ellie, there’s nothing wrong with your scent.” She reaches out and covers Ellie’s hand with her own.

“Yes, there is. You have no idea what it can do to people,” Ellie whispers, pulling back her fingers. She looks heartbreakingly earnest as she says it, and while she didn’t believe Ellie yesterday, there’s something about her voice now that… gives her pause.

“Okay,” she says, drawing back her own hand, too. “Then show it to me.”

Ellie blinks at her.

“What?”

“Show me what your scent can do. Let’s go somewhere where you can let it all out,” Dina says, sitting up straight and staring Ellie down in a clear sign of challenge. If yesterday morning was any indication, Dina’s panties may not survive a full-blown assault by Ellie’s alpha pheromones, but she’s willing to risk it, especially if it means showing Ellie that she’s not some weird monster alpha.

Ellie’s response is immediate, and vehement.

“No!”

Some of the people around them look up, but none of them say anything, and it doesn’t take long for everyone to go back to what they were doing before. It also doesn’t stop Dina from insisting that this is an excellent idea.

“Why not? How can you be so sure that your scent is a disaster, if you and Joel have spent the last few years travelling the country with no one else around?” She’s leaning forward in her seat, keeping her voice quiet and insistent. No matter what her friend decides, she’s not about to announce to the whole compound that Ellie feels insecure about the way she signals her status to other people. She’d rather drink the water from the clinic’s wash basin after it’s been used.

“I’m not risking it, Dina. Joel and I made a decision and we only came here because we both got shot by raiders, okay? It’s not even… We’re not even sure if we’re staying,” Ellie says, stumbling through the words and pulling the rug out from under Dina in the process. “If it turns out that I can’t be around people, Joel and I will move on again. It’s the only way.”

“You’re not sure if you’re staying?” Dina asks, something in her chest constricting so hard she feels Ellie must hear the unsteady beating of her heart.

Looking down at the table, Ellie shrugs helplessly.

“I’ve already caused a lot of unnecessary tension in the compound just by being around. I don’t want anything worse to happen, you know?” She looks like a puppy who has been kicked down a flight of stairs, and Dina doesn’t have it in her to press for more information, or to insist on her scent experiment.

Instead, she nods in understanding.

“Okay,” she says, picking up her sandwich ag ain and biting into it. With the prospect of Ellie leaving the compound, the lettuce and goat cheese combination barely tastes any better than the water in the basin. Which she knows firsthand, because she and Missy dared each other to drink it once.

\----

She lets the matter lie for three whole days.

Every morning is spent having breakfast together. Even more perfectly, Ellie is assigned to the stables, since her monthly quota of patrol days has been filled, so Dina finds herself hanging out there more and more often.

Ellie and Jill get on well, as was to be expected, and Dina notes with some jealousy that Shimmer takes to Ellie faster than she did to her. Even without carrots for bribes.

On the fourth day, Dina wakes to the sound of knocking on her front door.

Half-asleep, she drags herself from the sheets, Ellie’s flannel wrapped around her as a night shirt. Below it, she’s wearing nothing more than her panties, but at least the shirt is buttoned up all the way, so she doesn’t bother throwing on a pair of pants.

“Yeah?” she asks with a yawn as she opens the door, holding her hand in front of her mouth and squeezing her eyes shut.

“Um,” the other person says, clearly flustered. “I can come back later. Kind of.”

It’s Ellie.

“No, no, it’s fine,” Dina mutters, opening the door further and letting her friend slip inside. If she isn’t mistaken, Ellie had guard duty the night before, which explains why she’s awake at such an ungodly hour. “What’s up?”

Prying open her eyes as best she can, Dina squints up at her friend, only just realizing there’s a spot of blood on Ellie’s cheek. Adrenaline shoots through her like lightning, waking her up more thoroughly than a bucket of ice cold water.

“What the hell happened?” she asks, lifting her hands so she can inspect Ellie’s right cheek. Her left has yellowed a bit, still healing from Jesse’s punch, but when Dina checks more closely, she notes that there isn’t a wound there at all. Just blood. “And don’t say a misunderstanding.”

Shaking her head, Ellie takes Dina’s wrists and lowers them from her face. She looks concerned, but there’s still a blush on her cheeks. Only now that she and Ellie are standing so close to one another that Dina can smell the sweat on her skin, does she wish she’d bothered with more clothing. She’s naked under the flannel, and if that wasn’t bad enough, she’s also wearing it. Wearing the flannel. Ellie’s flannel. In front of  _ Ellie. _

“Raiders,” Ellie says instead by way of explanation, her hands warm and steady on Dina’s skin. “You’re needed at the clinic, so I told the others I’d come and get you. I’m fine.” Her smile is lopsided, and seems a little forced, but Dina appreciates the effort.

“Shit,” she says by way of a reply, before moving away from Ellie and towards her wardrobe. “So that blood on your cheek?”

“Not mine,” Ellie confirms, and a brief glance behind herself confirms to Dina that Ellie has turned towards the door to give her privacy. It’s sweet. While on any other day she might entertain the thought of Ellie watching as she unbuttons and drops her flannel, this is not the time.

“That’s good,” Dina says to herself, looking behind herself one last time before she starts tugging off the shirt. “You said raiders? They didn’t get close to the wall, did they? Who’s hurt?” An image of a bloody Jesse floats in front of Dina’s eyes.

“We didn’t see them,” Ellie says, her hands stuffed into her pockets. “They weren’t anywhere close to us, that we could tell.” As she talks, Dina slips on a black sports bra and switches out her old pair of panties for a new one. “We saw Kat a little ways off, dragging Dalton behind her. He’s in bad shape. Dr. Roberts is already at the clinic, but…”

“All hands on deck,” Dina interjects, tugging on a pair of jeans she wore the day before, followed by a red sweater and a pair of dirty socks because they’re easier to slip on quickly. “I get it. This isn’t my first rodeo.”

“I figured.” Ellie keeps her face turned away, even when Dina brushes past her on her way to get her shoes. A glimpse of her face reveals that Ellie’s eyes are closed, too, as though she wants to double-respect Dina’s modesty. “I think Maggie went running to get Missy. We were on guard duty together.”

“Yeah, I remember.” Dina shrugs on her jacket and pushes past Ellie and out the door. “Let’s go.”

“Coming,” Ellie says, closing the door behind them and hurrying after Dina as she runs down the corridor outside her apartment.

They make it to the clinic in under two minutes.

\----

Dalton survives the ordeal, but only barely.

He looks about as bad as Ellie did on her first day back in Jackson, but the bullets wreak more havoc on his internal organs. Reluctantly, they inject Dalton with one of the few precious vials of anesthetic they have, and Dina is spared the labor of scent sharing with him to help him keep calm.

It’s a grueling surgery nonetheless, even with all of them on hand to help.

Hours later, Dina leaves the operating room, covered in blood, to find Ellie leaning against one of the beds. She looks like she hasn’t left, but there’s two small packages next to her that are wrapped in paper, and Dina knows they contain food by the sight alone.

“Hey,” she says with a tired smile, stripping off her gloves in the sink and following it up with her mask and surgical cap. “You haven’t been here this whole time, have you?” Behind Ellie, Kat is asleep on the same bed. She has some bumps and bruises, as well as a few scrapes on her face, but otherwise she’s fine. Dalton took the brunt of the attack.

“I went out to talk with Joel, Tommy and Maria about what’s going on,” Ellie says, keeping her arms crossed over her chest. “I picked you up some breakfast, too. And lunch.” She frowns down at the paper packages. “I hope you’re hungry.”

“Starving, actually,” Dina confirms, scrubbing her hands in the sink with a well-worn piece of soap. “What did you get?”

It’s meaningless chatter, but it’s necessary for Dina to start to feel normal again after a surgery.

“Lettuce and goat cheese sandwich for breakfast, and something that looks like meatloaf for lunch.” She picks up the first package and sniffs it. “I’d start with the goat cheese. I think the meatloaf will destroy your bowels if you don’t have a solid foundation first.”

With a smile, Dina tugs off her bloody apron and throws it into the hamper next to the sink. Tomorrow, she’ll do the washing. Today, she’s too tired. Dr. Zhou, Dr. Roberts, and Missy are all still in the operating room, going through their own post-surgery tasks, and Dina knows they have precious little time.

Letting out a soft sigh, she walks over to Ellie.

“I need a hug,” she says, before wrapping her arms around Ellie’s back and tucking her face under her chin. Like always, she’s warm and solid, and despite the heat of the day, the smell of her fresh sweat only makes Dina burrow in deeper. Before she knows it, her eyes are closed and her nose is pressed against Ellie’s pulse point, breathing in her soothing pheromones.

Ellie’s arms wrap around her in turn, sliding gently against her back, and her cheek comes to rest on Dina’s head. Her pulse is quick, her chest moving up and down with each measured breath. It would have been a perfect moment, had it not been for the events of the morning.

“Where are you supposed to be right now?” Dina asks drowsily, lulled into a puddle of relaxation by Ellie’s pheromones. “Am I keeping you from something?” It takes a lot of energy not to press her lips against the hollow in Ellie’s throat when she swallows.

“Tommy gave me the rest of the day off. I don’t have to be anywhere but here.” Ellie’s words reverberate in her chest, and Dina makes an embarrassing purring-like sound before she can stop it. They both freeze, but neither one gets to comment on it, because the door to the surgical suite opens and Missy walks out, equally as covered in blood as Dina was a few minutes ago.

She stops when she spots them, but her expression is hard to make out from behind the mask. Then, she shakes her head and heads to the sink.

“Fucking kids these days,” she mutters to herself, before stripping off her gloves. “Can’t leave them alone for five fucking minutes before they start jumping each other.”

\----

When Dina leaves the clinic about thirty minutes later, she finds Ellie pacing back and forth outside. Seeing her in motion is so odd, Dina stops and stares, which nearly causes a collision with Missy who is following after her.

“I swear to god, Dina,” Missy grumbles, side-stepping her at the last second. She, too, spots Ellie, who stops her pacing when she notices she’s been found out. “Why am I even surprised?” Taking another step around Dina, Missy starts walking in the direction of her apartment. “See you losers tomorrow!”

She waves without turning back around, and Dina snorts as she joins Ellie in the street.

“You can really feel the love whenever she’s around,” Dina says as she follows Missy’s retreating form with her eyes.

“Sure thing.” Ellie has her hands stuffed in her pockets again, her eyes equally fixed on Missy.

Taking pity on her, Dina takes her by the arm and starts tugging her in the other direction, towards her own apartment. “So,” she starts, keeping their arms loosely interlinked. “What brings you back to our fine establishment? I ate the food you brought. I didn’t take any photographic evidence, but I’m sure Miriam will vouch for me, if you run back to ask her.”

Miriam had come by to relieve her and Missy of their shifts about twenty minutes ago, but the discussion about what to do with Dalton and his observation had taken a little longer than planned. Whatever else she thought when she shooed Ellie out of the room, she hadn’t expected her to stick around.

Not that Dina isn’t pleased.

“I don’t know,” Ellie says, following Dina and making no attempts to break free. “Today has just been… a lot. I didn’t know where else I should go.” She looks down at her feet, and Dina feels strangely charmed. “I guess I was wondering if we could hang out?”

With a gentle smile, Dina bumps their shoulders together.

“I’d like that,” she says, squeezing Ellie’s arm with her free hand. “We can put on a bit of music in my apartment. I may even have some… substances. If you’re interested.”

Ellie snorts. “Substances? Very subtle.”

“Nobody likes a hater, Ellie,” she says, dragging her friend over to the door of her apartment building.

\----

She must admit, when she woke up this morning, she did not expect to end the day with Ellie in her apartment. And she definitely didn’t expect Ellie to lounge on her bed with a joint in her hand and with one of Dina’s favorite LPs turning around and around on her record player.

Dina, meanwhile, is turning, too, in circles around her apartment, dancing lazily to the music. So far, they’ve been passing the joint back and forth, and Dina is starting to feel the stress of the day slide off her.

“This is good stuff,” Ellie compliments her, pushing herself up on her elbows before finally righting herself into a sitting position. With the joint stuck between her teeth, she shrugs off her flannel and lets it drop to the floor. “Where’d you get it?”

The t-shirt Ellie is wearing is dark green, and brings out her eyes, and Dina has half the mind to sit down on her friend’s lap and share smoke with her in an entirely different way. Instead, she sits down on the chair that Ellie slept on and steals the joint with her fingers.

“My friend Eugene. He has his own little growing basement close to one of the checkpoints.” Dina drags in the smoke and lets it out slowly, blowing little smoke rings into the air. It’s a trick she’s quite proud of.

“Go Eugene,” Ellie says, crossing her legs in front of her. She lets her eyes wander around the room, her head bobbing to the music. “Where’d you get the record player? I had a Walkman a few years ago, but.” She shrugs. “Joel and I went through a lot of shit, and it didn’t survive.”

“That sucks.” Dina passes her the joint, and their fingers touch just for a moment. She’s not sure if it’s the weed or something else, but she feels like an electric shock zaps through her at the contact. “I found the player on one of my runs. Hauled it all the way back to Jackson on foot. That was before we all had horses.”

Ellie’s smile is pretty, Dina thinks.

She’s starting to feel a little foggy, and she relaxes back against the chair, watching as Ellie takes a long drag.

“Do you still have the Walkman? Eugene taught me how to fix some electronics. Maybe I could have a look at it?” Dina offers, her eyes focused on Ellie’s lips. The healing bruise on her cheek only makes her more handsome and roguish.

“Nah,” Ellie says, blowing smoke into the air. “I left it behind five years ago.” Her hand slides against her tattoo. “I left a lot of things behind, then.” She leans against the wall behind Dina’s bed and closes her eyes. “Where were you five years ago?”

Stealing the joint from Ellie’s hand again, Dina takes the last drag. They’ve smoked it down to a stub, and she puts it out on an ashtray on the nightstand. She holds the smoke in her lungs, before letting it flow out gently.

“Five years ago I was already here.” Dina pulls her right leg onto the chair and wraps her arms around it, putting her chin on her knee. “What happened to you five years ago?” She asks it tentatively, hoping it’s clear that she does not expect an answer.

But Ellie’s eyes are still closed, and she looks more relaxed than Dina has ever seen her.

“Five years ago I became like this,” she says, rubbing her hand along her tattoo again, like it’s a tic or a soothing mechanism. “It’s why my scent is off, and why Joel and I could never stay in one place for too long.”

Getting up from the chair, Dina sits down next to her friend.

“The scent thing again,” she says, her hand searching and kind as she lays it on Ellie’s knee. “We never quite finished that conversation, did we?”

Ellie’s green eyes are marred with uncertainty when she finally opens them.

“We decided it’s better not to tempt fate,” she whispers, reaching out and enclosing Dina’s fingers with her own. “Trust me, you don’t want to know what happens when I’m not in control of myself. Or when I let go. It’s not normal.”

Heart aching for her friend, Dina turns her hand over so she can intertwine their fingers.

“Don’t you know normal is overrated?” she asks softly, leaning forward and laying a brief kiss against Ellie’s shoulder. “I promise you won’t scare me off, Ellie. Nothing about you scares me. Even if something happened to you that made you different.”

Swallowing thickly, Ellie opens her mouth to form a rebuttal. Dina can see it in the way her face twists into a pained expression, in the way her forehead creases with worry and self-loathing. It’s almost enough for Dina to kiss her again, maybe on the neck this time.

But it doesn’t get that far. Instead, Ellie’s teeth click shut, and she looks away, pulling back her hand and scooting away from Dina just a little.

“Ellie,” Dina starts, but her friend raises her hand.

“I don’t—I don’t want to be too close,” Ellie says, grabbing two fistfuls of Dina’s sheets and holding on tightly. “If something goes wrong or you start to feel threatened, I don’t want to add to it by being right in your face.”

There’s pain in Ellie’s voice again, but Dina respects her wishes and stays on the other side of the bed, leaning against the headboard. Maybe she should hold onto something sturdy, too? It seems silly, but Ellie looks too serious for jokes.

“Okay,” Dina acquiesces, pulling her ankles closer towards herself, so she can sit cross-legged. “Whenever you’re ready, Ellie. This isn’t… you don’t have to do this, if you really don’t want to.” She lays her hand on the blanket, palm down. A placating gesture. Between them, ready for Ellie to take if she wants to.

But determination seems to have crept in beyond the cracks, and Ellie doesn’t scoot back over.

“I haven’t tried to  _ not _ control it in a really long time.” She stares down at the duvet, her green eyes focused on a loose thread. “I’ll try not to let it go all at once, if I can, but if you feel like it’s too much at any point—”

“Ellie,” Dina says again, keeping her hand firm and solid on the bedspread between them. “I trust you.”

Letting out a shaky breath, Ellie looks up at her. 

“I’m not sure you should,” she says, and closes her eyes.

\----

It starts slowly.

A shift in the air.

Dina almost doesn’t notice it at first, the subtle changes in the composition of Ellie’s scent. It’s always been strong, even when she was unconscious, but when Dina feels the hairs on the back of her neck stand to attention, she realizes she may be in for more than she knows how to handle.

In front of her, Ellie sits perfectly still with her hands grasping the duvet, her eyes closed tightly and her forehead furrowed in concentration. There’s sweat gathering at her temple, and Dina wonders why such a thing as scent control should take so much effort.

With every additional breath, she thinks she understands it more and more.

There’s a reason Dina’s hairs stand on end. The animal in her recognizes the predator in Ellie, more primal and dangerous than the other alphas in town. It scares her, she realizes, but it also… draws her in. No other alpha – no other  _ person _ – in Jackson smells and tastes quite like this. The more Ellie relinquishes of herself, the more she  _ signals, _ the stronger Dina’s instincts attune themselves.

She is as yet undecided if it will be fight or flight. Or something else entirely.

“Dina?” Ellie asks, confused, pulling Dina out of her thoughts.

She’s moved without realizing.

“Ellie,” she breathes, their faces mere inches apart.

More than anything, she can feel Ellie’s harsh breathing on her face, mixing with her pheromones. A part of her wants to bare its neck, but another wants to dig its own teeth in. When Ellie swallows thickly, her throat moving, Dina feels herself leaning in again.

“Dina,” Ellie whispers, staying stock-still as Dina scents her; her nose moving along her throat and neck.

“This,” Dina replies, wondering why Ellie’s scent is starting to tug something in her memory. Something inviting and repellent at the same time. Violent and bloody in the back of her mind. “You.” Her hand comes to rest on Ellie’s chest, feeling her heat through the thin cotton of her t-shirt. “Is this you?”

Carefully, Dina pulls back, like Ellie will lunge at any second and pin her to the mattress. It frightens her how much she wants it, but when they make eye contact, Dina tries to wrangle her animal back into its cage. Because Ellie looks terrified.

“It’s okay,” Dina says, keeping her hand on Ellie’s chest. She wants to dig in her nails and stake a claim, draw blood and submit at the same time. And yet, she can tell that Ellie is still holding herself back. “It’s okay, Ellie. I’m okay.”

It’s a lie, but she can’t help herself.

“You don’t smell okay,” Ellie says haltingly, keeping her hands on the mattress. It’s probably the only thing stopping Dina from losing it completely. If she felt Ellie’s hands on her, she’s not sure what she would do. “You smell like you’re in distress.”

Ellie’s words almost bring her up short.  _ Does _ she smell like she’s in distress? She can’t tell.

The only thing in Dina’s nose is Ellie.

When Ellie closes her eyes again and hunches up her shoulders, pain spreads through each fiber of Dina’s being at the sight. It’s Ellie, trying to make herself as small as possible. In a way, it’s like Dina’s body has adjusted itself to Ellie, and when she senses her rearing back her scent, it feels like failure.

“Ellie,” Dina whispers, her second hand finding purchase on Ellie’s right shoulder. Before she can second-guess her actions, she finds herself rubbing cheeks with Ellie, trying to sooth her in the only way she knows how. It would be embarrassing, if Ellie didn’t let out a gasp and return the gesture. “Thank you for showing me.”

“I’m sorry,” Ellie whines, burying her face in Dina’s shoulder as she finally lets go of the duvet to twist her arms around Dina’s back. The embrace is tight, too tight for comfort, but it slots something into place in Dina’s heart as she clutches Ellie back just as strongly. “I’m sorry.”

As the swell of pheromones subsides, Dina slowly comes back to herself, although she felt achingly present the whole time Ellie shared this part of herself. It’s only now, moments after, that she realizes she’s turned on, and as Ellie shivers and holds her, she tries to ignore how her panties cling to her as she moves further into the embrace.

“It’s okay,” Dina says, meaning every word this time. Softly, she strokes the back of Ellie’s neck, wondering if her distress was too overpowering for Ellie to notice anything else. If that’s the case, she’s not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. “Nothing bad happened, see?”

She pulls back, lifting her hands so she can cup Ellie’s cheeks and make her look up. Green eyes peer at her gingerly, and Dina doesn’t miss the fact that Ellie’s hands have returned to her own lap. Her shoulders are still a little hunched, but no worse than before, and Dina counts that as a win.

“Your scent didn’t make me lose my mind,” she says, punctuating her sentence with a smile. “And it didn’t make Jesse punch you.” Gently, she strokes her fingers along the fading bruise and healing bottom lip. Again, Ellie swallows, and her eyes flit briefly down, her nostrils twitching.

It feels like a moment. With a capital M.

She wants to kiss Ellie. She wants Ellie to kiss her.

But instead, Ellie pulls away, and rubs the back of her hand against her nose.

“Um, thank you,” Ellie says quickly, scrambling to her feet. “I, um, I haven’t—Joel is the only one who has—I haven’t shared that with anyone else.” She looks at Dina a little intently, her cheeks red from exhaustion and what Dina can only guess to be embarrassment. “So, thank you. Thank you for being cool about this.”

With a blink, Dina digests her words. She doesn’t feel cool. If anything, she feels ready to crawl out of her clothes and straight into Ellie’s arms. If  _ anything _ anything, she can only imagine how blown her pupils are, and how flushed her cheeks. And then there must be the smell. There is no way Ellie isn’t able to tell. Not now that Dina feels like herself again.

“Ellie,” Dina says, voice thick with something other than concern. “Sit back down.”

Her friend takes a step back.

“Thanks for hanging out,” Ellie says, not bothering to stoop to pick up her flannel. “Thanks for taking my mind off this morning. Thanks for—for stuff. Thanks.” Her hand reaches behind her, trying to find her a path of least resistance.

It feels like rejection, and it also weirdly doesn’t.

Because Dina doesn’t think that Ellie actually wants to go.

Her nostrils are still twitching, and maybe it’s wishful thinking, but when Dina’s gaze drops demonstrably down to Ellie’s jeans, there’s an unmistakable… presence, there. And it’s not helped by the fact that Dina can smell Ellie’s pheromones again. Thicker, less terrifying. More inviting.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Ellie says, back thumping against the closed front door.

Her hand is on the doorknob.

“Ellie,” Dina says, in a last-ditch effort to stave off the escape. But with one last guilty look over her shoulder, Ellie slips out of the apartment, closing the door behind herself and taking with her whatever was left of Dina’s defense mechanisms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dina: Sit Down. Let's Do It.  
> Ellie: ok but what if we Didn't
> 
> if you want to support me, find me on tumblr @goshdarnitjay


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i wish y'all could see the adorable kitties at my parents' place
> 
> instead enjoy the adorable kiddies in this chapter

As soon as Ellie is gone and the door is closed, Dina slumps back onto her bed.

She contemplates for all of three seconds if it would be wrong to masturbate. But when all she hears are Ellie’s footsteps hurrying away from her door, she decides it’s not worth the ethical dilemma. Especially when she moves her foot and it brushes the newly discarded flannel.

Twisting around on the bed so she doesn’t have to get back up, she grabs the shirt with two fingers and pulls it to her.

If asked, Dina would not admit to masturbating in her apartment at six in the afternoon while a boogie record plays and she’s clutching her friend’s shirt to her face. She would also never say out loud that she imagined what said friend would look like naked, or what sounds she would make while Dina rides her out in the square so everyone can see that she’s spoken for.

Because that would be ridiculous.

Although it feels fucking fantastic in the moment.

\----

The next morning, Dina wakes to the old and familiar sensation of an oncoming heat.

Like always, the first sign is the ache in her teeth. A low buzzing somewhere at the base of them, making her want to grind her teeth for a full week before her heat actually starts. What follows is the realization that she’s horny already, and so she gives in to what she’s sure will become a morning ritual for the next few days: She rubs one out. It helps that she’s already wearing Ellie’s flannel, and that she’s dreamed of her friend the night before.

Predictably, the first orgasm doesn’t help, so she groans with annoyance as she goes for a second, and then a third.

She gets out of bed only after the fourth one has passed, her legs a little wobbly, and drags herself into the shower.

Once clean, Dina stands naked in front of her wardrobe and contemplates on what outfit would be best to work in until she can get someone to help her through her heat. She knows who she would prefer. But considering Ellie all but somersaulted out of the window yesterday to get away from the idea of sex with her, she doesn’t think that option is terribly viable.

As she lets her eyes glide along her pile of sweaters and blouses, she thinks back to that moment. Wonders what would have happened if Ellie had sat back down upon being prompted. Would they have kissed? Most definitely. And then what?

Her eyes close of their own volition, as she imagines Ellie’s hands on her. Ellie’s tongue in her mouth. Ellie’s leg in between her thighs. And then, other things.

“Fuck,” she grumbles, before dragging herself to the present. She can’t spend the rest of the morning masturbating, no matter how much she may want to. She has a job to do, and if she manages to get herself to the clinic at some point today, she will be able to brew herself a tea that will help with the symptoms. “Fuck you, Ellie.”

She doesn’t mean it.

The moment the words leave her mouth, she regrets saying them, even if she’s by herself and no one can hear her. It’s not Ellie’s fault that Dina’s body has decided to dropkick her straight into heat at the merest whiff of a dominant alpha in her room. Nor is it Ellie’s problem that she’s the most dangerous and delectable thing Dina has ever smelled.

Giving up on trying to be smart and logical before she’s even had breakfast, Dina throws on her underwear and a pair of jeans. With a tired sigh, she closes the wardrobe and trudges over to her bed.

“Ugh, what the hell. Like anyone’s going to care,” she says to herself as she picks up one of Ellie’s flannels. She’s not stupid enough to pick the one she masturbated with, although it’s sorely tempting, just to see Ellie’s reaction when she smells the combination of their scents. Instead, she picks the one she’s merely cuddled with, and throws it on over her bra.

It’s a little big on her, so she ties it off at her stomach and rolls up the sleeves to her elbows.

Over the last several days, Ellie’s scent on it has slowly lost some of its fervor, but something still slots into place in Dina’s chest as soon as she slides it on. At this point, she can’t even pretend to care about what the others may say when they smell Ellie on her. She’s a free agent now, and if anything, it may protect Dina from unwanted advances this week.

Although she should probably take it off when she picks someone else to be her heat buddy.

For now, though, she doesn’t try to hide that it brings her comfort.

\----

By the time she gets to the mess hall for breakfast, she’s attracted exactly five stares from people she’s passed on the way. Whether it’s Ellie’s scent on her, or the underlying sweetness to her own smell caused by the heat, she can’t say. Nor does she pay it much attention.

Instead, she strides with purpose through the streets, keeping her shoulders back and her eyes turned forward.

As soon as she enters, she knows Ellie isn’t there.

Still, she sweeps the tables with her eyes, disappointed when her instincts are proven right. Somehow, Dina doesn’t think her friend will show up this morning. It’s already pretty late for breakfast.

With a huff, Dina gets into the queue, ignoring the confused frown on the person in front of her.

When it’s her turn, the woman behind the counter smiles at her sweetly.

“Good morning, hon,” she says, gesturing at one of the sandwiches in front. “I saved you a lettuce and goat cheese sandwich.”

“Thanks, Tash,” Dina replies, looking down at the tray in her hands.

“Aw, why the long face?” Tash asks, reaching under the counter to get the sandwich in question. Her dark skin contrasts starkly with the light gray paper she’s wrapped Dina’s breakfast in. “I saw the row between Ellie and that ex-boyfriend o’ yours.”

Idly, Dina wonders who in this compound  _ hasn’t _ seen or heard about that.

“That was fucking embarrassing,” Dina says to her with a roll of her eyes as she puts the wrapped sandwich onto her tray. “Speaking of which, have you seen Ellie this morning? We had a—situation last night, and I don’t want her to skip breakfast on my account.”

To her credit, Tash doesn’t look scandalized or like she’s judging Dina for going from one alpha to the next in the span of less than a week. Instead, she merely tuts and shakes her head. Then, she reaches under the counter again and picks up another wrapped package.

“Can’t say I’ve seen her.” She holds the second sandwich out to her. “But it’s sweet of you to think of her. Make sure she gets this, will you? That girl doesn’t eat enough as it is. She’s too skinny.”

With a nod, Dina accepts the offering and smiles at Tash.

“I’m sure she’ll appreciate it. Thanks, Tash.”

The other woman waves her off.

“Nonsense, hon.” She gives Dina another smile that pronounces the laugh lines around her brown eyes and waves her off with her hands. “Now get out of here. And tell that girl if I don’t see her in here tomorrow morning, I’m tattling on her to that adopted father o’ hers.”

“Will do, Tash,” Dina says with a salute, before taking her tray back to the start of the counter so she can pick up the wrapped sandwiches and put her tray back on the clean pile.

With another wave, she leaves the mess hall in search of her friend.

\----

Ellie is not at the guard post.

She isn’t at the municipal building with Tommy and Maria.

The stables are equally bereft of her presence, and Jill only shrugs at her apologetically when asked.

The place where she finally finds her, is the last place Dina would have ever looked, which is probably the point.

“I hope this doesn’t mean what I think it means,” Dina says as she enters the clinic to find Ellie and Missy playing UNO on the bed next to Dalton’s unconscious body. She feels a little bad about it, but Dina barely spares him a glance.

“And what do you think it means?” Missy asks, her face turned to her cards until her nose must pick up on the fact that Dina is wearing Ellie’s flannel. Her dark eyes lift and a smirk takes root on her lips, like she’s just  _ won _ something.

Ignoring her look, Dina points first at Ellie, then at Missy.

“Like  _ you _ are trying to avoid me, and  _ you _ are replacing me with a newer, shinier model,” she says, before putting down the sandwiches and placing her hands at her waist. With all the bluster she can manage, she glares them both down. She’s not really mad, but it’s fun to watch Ellie squirm, especially because Dina can see how her eyes flit back and forth between the flannel and Dina’s face.

Missy snorts and throws down her cards.

“It was bound to happen one of these days, babe,” she says, drawing Ellie closer by the shoulders and pressing a big smooch against her cheek. “I’m sorry you had to find out like this.” Despite the fact that she’s clearly joking, Dina feels the seeds of jealousy in her stomach, and while Missy seems to sense this, she only smirks wider.

She will never let Dina live this down.

To her credit, Ellie gently removes herself from the embrace and wipes at her cheek.

“Sorry,” she says to Dina, though whether it’s for the comment about her avoidance tactic or the smooch is anyone’s guess.

“Whatever,” Dina says, throwing her the sandwich. “Tash sends her regards.”

Ellie catches the package, but only barely.

“Thanks,” she says, getting to her feet and looking between Dina and Missy. “Um, I’ll just—” She gestures at the door, but Missy is faster and grabs her by the sleeve of the green flannel she’s wearing today. Dina’s is red.

“Oh no, buddy,” Missy says, dragging Ellie back to the bed. “You’re not getting out of it that easily.” Once Ellie is back in her original position, Missy jumps down from the bed and stretches her arms over her head. “I, on the other hand, have actual work to do this morning, so I’ll let you two get back to whatever it is you’re doing.” She looks at Dina. “Romance, is it?”

“Totally,” Dina replies, her voice deadpan.

Picking up her backpack, Missy slings it over her shoulder and bids them adieu.

“Don’t go rutting in the back room. I’d like to have a nap this afternoon without drowning in your stench,” she says, right before disappearing into the street so neither Dina nor Ellie can form a rebuttal. Not that she needed to have worried about one from Ellie, whose face has taken on an unhealthy red color that spreads all the way to her neck and what’s visible of her chest.

“No promises,” Dina shouts after her, before walking over to the bed and taking up Missy’s cards. “God, she’s shit at this game.”

Keeping her eyes focused somewhere beyond Dina’s right shoulder, Ellie clears her throat.

“I wasn’t avoiding you,” she starts, and Dina is glad the bed is in between them, because her heat is making itself known very uncomfortably just from what little space they share.  _ Yes,  _ **_this one_ ** _ , _ it seems to say, and Dina does not find it the least bit funny.

“Bullshit, Ellie,” Dina replies, starting to shuffle the cards together until she can pick them up. “If you don’t want to sleep with me, that’s fine. You don’t have to. But don’t lie to me.” She takes the deck of cards and walks off in the direction of the back room.

Before she can reach the door, Ellie’s fingers close around her forearm.

“It’s not—That’s not the problem,” Ellie says, her palm hot and unrelenting on Dina’s skin. “It wouldn’t be safe. Yesterday should have been enough to tell you that.” Her hold isn’t restrictive. If anything, it’s a plea for Dina to understand. “You deserve—”

Turning around to face her fully, Dina drops the deck, tears her arm free and grabs the front of Ellie’s flannel and t-shirt to tug her down. They’re nose to nose, and Dina feels her chest vibrate with an approving growl at Ellie’s equally interested scent that’s swirling around her.

“I don’t care what you think I deserve, Ellie,” Dina whispers to her, tilting her head to the side just slightly so she can ghost her lips across her friend’s. They’re barely touching, and Dina feels Ellie tremble, breathes in her shaky exhales. “Yesterday, when I felt you, I was scared at first. I won’t say I wasn’t.” There’s a hitch to Ellie’s breath as Dina slides their cheeks together slowly, deliberately, so she can whisper in her ear. “But I’m not scared now. And all I want… is—”

_ All I want is you, _ she wants to yell, especially when other people enter the clinic.

Instead, Ellie pulls away from her and turns towards the newcomers.

“Dina, we need you,” Tommy says, looking harried and stressed. “There’ve been more attacks. Please, come quickly.”

So Dina goes.

And after a moment, Ellie follows.

\----

This time, the results are worse than Dalton, and Dina spends the rest of the day patching up wounds and assisting Dr. Zhou and Dr. Roberts in surgery. By the time she finishes, two of their people are dead, one has been critically wounded, and two have suffered major blood loss. It’s a mess.

It isn’t made better by Tommy’s constant hovering, although Maria tries to get him to leave a few times.

The only thing it  _ stops  _ is the heat symptoms, suppressed by adrenaline, anger, and fear. Even Ellie’s presence is more of a balm than it is a stimulant. At some point, Joel joins the little group in the main room, and he comes bearing lunch and juice, which Ellie gently forces Dina to eat and drink.

All of it is enough to make even Missy stop joking, and when Dina finally leaves the clinic at eight in the evening, long after her shift was supposed to end, she feels like crying and curling up into a ball from the tension. Or from the release of tension. One of the two.

Ellie is still there, though Tommy, Maria and Joel have finally left two hours ago, and Dina sinks into her embrace before Ellie can even say a word.

“Fuck,” Dina says, face pressed to Ellie’s shoulder. “Fuck.”

“Yeah.” Ellie cradles the back of her neck, holding her tightly and not letting go even when Missy passes them and leaves with nothing more than a pat on Dina’s shoulder blade. “Fuck is right.” She smells good, comforting, and Dina doesn’t try to quell the few tears that spring to her eyes.

_ “Fuck,” _ Dina says again, more emphatically, before pulling back and angrily wiping at her eyes. “I got blood on your flannel. I’m sorry.” She points at a dark red spot on the bottom of the shirt she’s still wearing, where the apron had slipped earlier as they had transferred a body from the operating table to a stretcher. “Shit.”

“It’s fine,” Ellie reassures her, keeping her hands on Dina’s shoulders.

“I’ll wash it. I promise,” Dina offers, wiping at her face again and looking up at Ellie.

Shaking her head, Ellie slides down her hands so she can clasp Dina’s fingers.

“You don’t have to,” she says, a softness around her eyes that Dina has never noticed before.

Furrowing her brows, Dina squints up at her friend.

“What are you not telling me?” she asks, taking a step forward.

Ellie takes one back, their hands in between them.

It’s a weird half-dance they’re performing, and Dina is tired of second-guessing herself. After all, Ellie hasn’t said that she  _ doesn’t _ want to have sex with her. Only that it would be dangerous for them, which Dina still doesn’t believe is true.

“Please tell me,” Dina says, shoulders slumped and tired.

With a sigh, Ellie shrugs and looks away.

“I’m leaving tomorrow to hunt the raiders. Tommy and Joel have come up with a plan, and a team of us will go out to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again. They’re encroaching on our territory and hurting our people, and I can’t just sit around here and do nothing.”

Half-stunned, Dina grips Ellie’s hands more tightly.

“Were you going to tell me if I hadn’t asked?”

“Of course I would have,” Ellie defends herself, and Dina believes her. “But I would have told you tomorrow, so you didn’t have to worry all night.” She looks back at Dina, determination evident in the broad angle of her shoulders.

It’s such alpha bullshit, something which Ellie must have picked up from some of the alphas here, that Dina can’t do anything but hug her again.

“Dumbass,” she says, breathing her in. “You should be glad you told me tonight.”

“Why?” Ellie asks, hugging Dina back gently.

“Because I’m going with you.”

\----

The following morning, Dina shows up at the front of the gate at four forty-five AM, fully decked out in her gear and with her backpack strapped tightly to her, but not so tightly that she couldn’t slip out if an infected got a hold of her. She’s already picked up a rifle at the armory and has a handgun strapped to her side and a couple of knives at the ready.

For about two years now, she’s been training to become a medic, so she hasn’t had cause to go on patrol as much as some of the others who are leaving to hunt the raiders. But before she and her sister came to live in Jackson, they spent a few awful months moving from place to place, and it has taught Dina everything she needs to know to survive. Even if it wasn’t enough to save Talia.

Jesse and Antoine are already at the gate.

“Hey,” Jesse calls out to her with a wave and a smile. “You coming along, too?”

“Yeah,” Dina replies, walking up to him and holding onto the straps of her backpack. “I figured you guys may need a medic out in the field. Just in case things go sideways. Wouldn’t want you to bleed out from a little cut.”

With a shrug, Jesse smirks and flexes.

Before he can rebut her comment, she continues.

“Let me guess: Your alpha blood is too thick to bleed out anyway?” She smirks up at him and he makes a face at her. “I know just how thick your blood is, Jess.” She knocks against his forehead. “It’s the reason you’re so thick up there, too.”

“Oh, ha-ha,” he says, and Antoine nudges him in the side.

“She’s not wrong, man,” he says, and Jesse rolls his eyes.

“Two against one is so mature.” Jesse crosses his arms over his chest. He, too, is fully decked out in a backpack, a rifle, and a handgun. He must have knives, too, perhaps even a machete, though Dina can’t see them. She hasn’t talked to him since the break-up, but she’s glad he seems to be faring well.

They’re joined by Maggie, and then by a few more people. Taking too many would leave Jackson vulnerable to attack from anyone who might be watching them leave, so their group isn’t as big as Dina would like, but she knows it must be done.

Ellie arrives last, with Joel trailing behind her. There’s a look on her face that Dina hasn’t seen before. It looks almost like disinterest, but Dina thinks I may be detachment instead. Detachment from what they’re about to go do, maybe? After all, they’re about to hunt down thinking people and kill them to sustain their own survival.

Without being prompted, Ellie ends up standing next to Dina, her hands wrapped around her rifle and her shoulders broad and stiff. Her scent is more intense than on a normal day, and Dina is ever glad for the adrenaline that is keeping her heat symptoms at bay. She doesn’t have time for that nonsense right now.

“Hey,” Dina says softly as Tommy and Maria walk up to them. They’re not joining the hunting party, because they’re needed at home base, but Tommy seems unhappy about it to say the least. His arms are crossed over his chest, and Dina gets the impression that Maria forced him to stay put. “You good?”

Ellie lets go of the rifle with one hand so she can briefly squeeze Dina’s arm.

“Yeah,” Ellie says, keeping her eyes on Tommy. “You?”

“Peachy keen,” Dina replies, reaching out with her own hand and pinching Ellie’s skinny waist. She wants to say more, but Joel is standing behind them and she doesn’t need her friend’s dad to know that she wants to jump her when they’re back.

\----

They split off into teams of two, like they do on regular patrols, and everyone is instructed not to stray too far from their familiar paths. Since this is a hunting mission that relies on stealth, they leave their horses in Jackson, especially because they want to keep casualties to a minimum, and that includes animal casualties. The horses are just as hard to replace as their friends and colleagues.

At an intersection close to Jackson, Dina and Ellie split off from the rest of the group. Joel leaves in a different direction with Maggie, who is several heads smaller than him, and he only does it with a squeeze to Ellie’s shoulder and an intense look.

“That went smoother than I thought,” Dina whispers to Ellie when they’re further away from the others. As they creep their way through the underbrush, they keep their eyes on any movement in the distance. “I kind of expected him to throw a fit about not getting to hunt with you.”

Ellie’s back is still stiff, and Dina imagines her scent bending the trees and ferns ahead of them to let them pass. She’s not sure if it’s a heat thought, or if she’s just come to think of Ellie as a force of nature in and of herself.

“I discussed it with him last night,” Ellie says, her rifle held loosely in her hands. They’re a little ways away from one of the ruined towns of the old world. It’s the place where Dalton and Kat were originally attacked. “He wasn’t happy, but I talked him into it.”

Dina, who has only ever known Joel to be a statue of hewn rock, can’t imagine him ever backing down from anything. But then again, Ellie has spent the last five years with him. Surely, she must have seen him express an emotion before.

“I bet some of the people in town would have paid to see that,” Dina says, her own rifle held to her chest. Before, when they had been travelling as a group, it was hanging across her backpack, but now, with the danger so imminent, she wants it ready.

“People think he’s scary, but he really isn’t,” Ellie says, holding up her hand so Dina will stop walking. She must have heard a sound. After a beat, they see a deer off in the distance, which looks at them for a moment, before trotting off. “He’s just big.”

“And his face is stony and brooding. Kind of like yours, when you aren’t being mushy and sweet,” Dina whispers, acutely aware that they’re nearing a field. The grass on it is tall, but they’ll have to crawl to avoid detection from any possible snipers in the upcoming city.

“I don’t brood,” Ellie defends herself half-heartedly, frowning over at Dina.

“Whatever you say, babe,” Dina placates. If this were a different situation, she knows she would be whistling innocently for comedic effect. But she doesn’t fancy being shot for being hilarious. “I support you in whatever delusions you have.”

She’s not entirely sure, because she’s watching their surroundings, but she thinks Ellie is  _ pouting. _

\----

Crawling through a field of tall grass is shit, but at least it gives her a good view of Ellie’s butt as it wriggles back and forth. Still, after this excursion is done, Dina will have a lot of scrubbing to do to get the dirt out.

Conversation is hard while travelling so close to the ground, so they don’t bother.

Ahead of them, the ruins of an old village come into view. One of their outposts is stationed here, but Dina doesn’t think it would be safe to go there right now. Not with raiders on the loose. Who knows what other shit they’ve brought, or whether or not they’ve been observing them for a while. There may very well be booby traps in their outpost, and Dina isn’t keen on finding out the hard way.

When Ellie stops, Dina crawls up next to her.

“I can smell something,” Ellie whispers, her brow furrowed.

Again, Dina wants to make a joke, this time about having showered just that morning before leaving, but she holds her tongue. Ellie looks serious and troubled.

“You know I got shot by raiders before Joel took me to Jackson,” Ellie says, the knuckles of her clenched fists turning white from the strain. “It smelled like this, too. I think the person who attacked us is close-by.”

Even before today, Dina knew Ellie’s senses were good, but she didn’t know they were  _ this _ good. She can’t smell anything other than them and the grass around them. When she tries again to scent their surroundings, she can tell that there’s a rabbit not too far away, but that’s it.

“Are you sure?” she asks, reaching out and covering the back of Ellie’s hand with her own.

“Yeah,” Ellie says, frowning over at her. “We need to be really fucking careful.”

“Okay.” Dina squeezes her wrist and nods to her with determination. She has to believe that compound life hasn’t made her soft, because if the people they’re hunting took down Ellie and gave her that scar on her stomach, they may very well be in trouble otherwise. “I’ll follow your lead?”

Ellie nods and starts crawling again, and Dina feels like it’s going to be a long day.

\----

The grass doesn’t stop directly at the edge of town, but the streets are too open, so Ellie and Dina crawl off to the side so they can find cover behind the closest building. It’s fallen into heavy disrepair, but the white plaster covering is still holding on as well as it can. Moss and Ivy have consumed much of its surface, and Ellie and Dina press themselves against it as they try to find the raiders.

High alert wouldn’t be enough of a description for how Dina is feeling right now as she walks behind Ellie and pays attention to their surroundings at the same time. For her part, Ellie seems to be following her nose more than anything, and her scent has notably reduced from what it was before.

Dina feels like she’s a homing beacon in comparison.

They pass two more houses this way, crouching in the shadows and trying to be as quiet and inconspicuous as possible. The tension in the air is making every hair on the back of Dina’s neck stand to attention.

It feels like something is coming, and they approach every corner with caution.

“They’re close,” Ellie whispers, lifting her hand again to get Dina to stop walking. “I can smell more than one.” She closes her eyes, clearly listening for movement up ahead, and Dina looks behind them and to the side to keep an eye on things as Ellie focuses. “Three, I think. No, four.”

“We can deal with four,” Dina whispers back, her hand finding purchase on Ellie’s shoulder. It’s tense, and Ellie must be going out of her skin with energy. Still, she stands still and focused, and Dina really must ask Ellie one of these days how she manages that little trick. “How do you want to do this?”

“Quietly. Very, very quietly,” Ellie replies, reaching up with her own hand and covering Dina’s fingers. “I hope you know how to take a man down from behind by slitting his throat.”

“Love it,” Dina says quietly, squeezing Ellie’s shoulder. “My favorite pastime.”

“Good,” Ellie replies, before looking around the corner of the house they’re hiding behind. “There’s one in the square. We get that one last.”

\----

There’s no time to watch Ellie cut open a man’s throat, not while Dina is busy cutting up her own.

At the next house from the one they were squatting behind, they find a back entrance and slowly make their way inside. Ellie goes in first, and before the second guy can complain about the first being choked and cut down, Dina has him in her grasp.

Blood spurts out of his esophagus, and Dina makes sure to keep her hand over his mouth to quiet whatever sounds he might have thought of making before his demise. Ellie has already lowered her victim to the ground when Dina follows suit. Her hands are covered in blood, and she wipes them off on the guy’s jacket.

Ellie brings a finger to her mouth and gestures for her to stay put as she goes on ahead. While she waits, Dina rifles through the pockets of the people they’ve just killed, hoping to find an indication of how many there are in total. While she doesn’t find anything useful in that department, she does keep a very nice knife and a package of ammo that fits to her handgun.

By the time Ellie returns, she’s more covered in blood than before, but none of it seems to be hers.

“Just the one in the square, but I don’t think we should go there just yet,” she says, crouching down next to Dina. “It’s too exposed. If we go after that one, I think they’ll be on our asses like flies.”

There’s a splatter of blood on her cheek, and Dina wipes it away with her hand.

“Okay, so where do we go next?” she asks, looking down at the two people at their feet.

“We should get back outside, to the back of the houses, and try to see if they’ve set up in any of the other buildings.” Ellie doesn’t ask her if she’s okay to keep going, and Dina appreciates it. She’s not sure Jesse or any of the other alphas would afford her the same courtesy.

“Let’s go, then,” Dina says, leaning in and giving Ellie a quick kiss to the cheek.

It seems to take Ellie a few seconds to process the gesture, but when she does, she smiles at Dina. A little tentatively, but it’s a start, and Dina will grab that thread when they’re back in Jackson. She’ll grab it and  _ pull. _

\----

They move further into the town.

By the time they’ve scouted out the rest of the buildings and have determined that no one is keeping watch, they take care of the man in the square, who falls victim to Ellie’s knife without much of a struggle. Quickly, she drags him off into the shadows where Dina is keeping watch with her rifle, and by the time Ellie stops, she’s barely broken a sweat.

“Was the person who shot you one of them?” Dina asks quietly, looking down in disgust at the corpse. They’ve come across a few dead infected, too, and she’s glad she hasn’t had to smell their perverted version of a scent.

Ellie shakes her head.

“No.” She waves Dina onwards, and they creep back behind the houses. “I can still smell them.”

With a nod, Dina follows after her.

“How many do you think there are?” Dina climbs over a broken-down car, a line of which is blocking the way across. Raising herself above the rubble gets her adrenaline pumping again, but when no gunfire can be heard, Dina knows they haven’t been spotted. “This is shaping up to be a pretty big group.”

Eight of them are dead, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t three times that many still left.

Ellie crouches down behind the wall of the theater they’ve just reached.

“Could be there’s ten. Twenty. No way to know until we actually talk to one of them.” She waves Dina over quickly, who keeps low to the ground as she bridges the gap between the convenience store and the theater. “But I’d feel much more comfortable if we actually killed the person who shot me, cause I got the feeling they were in charge.”

“Alright.” Dina walks in Ellie’s footsteps as they round the theater. “I guess I should get used to the idea that we won’t be home for dinner. I was looking forward to Tash’s special stew tonight. She only makes it once every blue moon.”

Ellie hums.

“What makes it so special?” she asks, turning her head a little to smile at Dina.

“Oh, she puts in—” but before she can say anything else, she sees Ellie moving, and then she’s no longer vertical but horizontal as she’s pushed to the ground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oops u guys really don't deserve this cliffhanger :shrug emoji:
> 
> see y'all on Saturday 😬😬
> 
> I can't thank you enough for all the comments and replies you guys have sent in! thank you!
> 
> if you want to support me, find on tumblr @goshdarnitjay


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i just got back from my cousin's wedding and i'm so fucking tired you guys have no idea
> 
> 👀 hope you like this chapter
> 
> [TW for canon-typical violence]

“Dina!” Ellie yells as she pushes herself across Dina’s prone form. “Dina, get to cover!”

Momentarily stunned, Dina watches as Ellie struggles with a woman who has come up behind them. To her horror, a knife is sticking out of Ellie’s right arm, right through her tattoo, and it’s this visual that finally gets her moving.

“Shit,” she breathes out, before sliding away and aiming her firearm. “Shit, fuck.” She doesn’t fumble with the safety, but she does hesitate as she aims. With Ellie and the woman so close together, she doesn’t want to accidentally shoot her friend.

“Dina!” Ellie yells again, hands curled around the woman’s machete. There’s too much blood.

With a grunt, Dina hauls herself to her feet, slips her gun back into its holster and draws out her own knife. Since the woman is still fighting with Ellie, she doesn’t have time to block Dina’s savage stabs, and before Dina knows what’s happening, the woman has dropped and Ellie’s hands are free.

“Let’s go,” Ellie says, grabbing Dina’s arm and dragging her away. Their yelling will have attracted others, and they need to regroup before they try anything else. Ideally, they’d head back to Jackson straight away, but when Dina hears a gunshot behind her and sees the plaster on a wall of a nearby building blow apart from the impact, she knows they don’t have the time or luxury to hike all the way back.

“Shit,” she says to herself as she keeps running, following behind Ellie. “Shit, shit, shit. Come on, this way.” She’s been on this route more than Ellie, and she knows where they could hide, if they manage to escape notice for long enough.

Grabbing Ellie’s non-stabbed arm, she turns them around a corner and takes off in between cars. The shooting has stopped, but Dina can hear shouting behind them. No doubt to inform the rest of the raider group that they’ve been compromised.

“There’s a place where we can hide,” Dina says as she and Ellie crouch down behind a particularly large van. “Fuck, Ellie, your arm.” There’s blood running down from where the knife is still lodged in her flesh. “Shit, fuck, come on. We need to get that taken care of. Fuck.”

Before Dina can move again, Ellie grabs her.

“Wait,” she says, tugging them more fully behind the car. “There’s someone around the corner.”

“I’ll take care of it,” Dina promises, willing Ellie to stay put so she doesn’t further aggravate her wounds.

Slowly, carefully, Dina walks over to the wall of the building next to them, keeping as close as she can to the ground. The shouting hasn’t stopped, and Dina is worried whoever is behind that wall will come charging out at them.

Heart pounding in her ears, she tries to listen for any sign of where the person actually is, but when she looks around the corner, she’s relieved to find them with their back turned. The woman is holding a rifle in her hands, and it seems to have jammed in just the right moment.

As quickly and quietly as possible, Dina grabs her from behind and slits her throat, struggling to hold her mouth shut with how slippery her own hands are with blood. She doesn’t bother picking up the rifle as she heads back to the street to wave Ellie over.

“Hurry,” Ellie whispers, holding her forearm. “I can smell them getting closer. At least ten different scents.” She wipes at her nose, pain clear as day in her eyes, and only manages to transfer the blood from her hand to her face.

She looks rough, but Dina doesn’t have time to fuss.

With her hand on Ellie’s arm, she starts running in the direction of the one place where she hopes they’ll be at least somewhat safe until help arrives. Although if there are still more than ten scents on their tail she already worries how anyone else from Jackson will be able to stand up to them.

\----

They don’t encounter anyone else on their way, but Dina feels like they’ve run for an hour by the time they get there. She looks around frantically before she stoops to the ground in the backyard of one of the houses.

“What are you doing?” Ellie asks as Dina scrabbles around for the hatch.

“Eugene showed me this place.” Finally, Dina finds it, and pulls, and a stone opens up in front of them to reveal a hole in the ground. “It’s a bunker he’s used in the past. Don’t ask me for what, just get in, before they find us.”

There’s nothing down there except for darkness, but Ellie obeys her without another question, slowly climbing down the ladder that leads into nothingness. As soon as her head is in, Dina climbs in after her, pulling the latch closed behind them and blindly fumbling for the locking mechanism on the inside.

Below her, Ellie turns on the flashlight on her backpack and glows up at her, which gives Dina enough light to click it shut.

“Alright,” Dina says, joining Ellie on the ground. “There should be air vents. Eugene said he once spent a whole week in here without having to open the hatch.” She looks up at Ellie’s ghostly illuminated face, before turning on her own flashlight.

The smell of blood is heavy in the air, and Dina goes in search of a different light source. On a table to her side, she sees a clump of candles, and she supposes this should do. Setting down her backpack, she pulls out her lighter and brings them to life.

“Okay, so assuming we’re safe in here and they don’t know about the bunker and won’t try to bomb it,” Dina starts, and Ellie sits down heavily on a chair next to the table, her arm still cradled to her chest.

“That’s a lot of assumptions,” Ellie interjects, and Dina gives her a  _ look. _

“Assuming all of that, our first order of business should be to get that fucking knife out of your arm,” Dina concludes, pulling up a second chair that looks entirely unfit to be inside of a bunker. Eugene must have dragged other furniture in here, and Dina doesn’t even want to know how long it took to get it stocked up. “Unless you disagree?”

“Nope,” Ellie says, gasping a little when Dina cradles her wrist and pulls the arm closer to the table. “It’s better than an earring, but I’m not sure it really goes with my style.” There’s sweat on her forehead, and Dina swallows thickly. At least it’s not a double-edged blade.

She pulls out her first aid kit from her backpack, before taking a moment to disinfect the front and the back of Ellie’s arm, which is tough, because there’s grime and dirt and blood crusted around it already. That alone is enough to force pained breaths from Ellie, and she’s not surprised.

“Do you want to bite down on something?” Dina asks gently as she gets out the gauze, her suture kit, and a rag to soak up the blood that is sure to spurt out as soon as the knife is removed. “I know you’re tough, baby, but maybe it’s a good idea.”

Ellie nods, her eyes closed and her left hand clenched into a first on her lap.

“Alright,” Dina says, getting up and tugging her belt from the loops of her jeans. She folds it once so the cleanest sides are on display, and then offers it to Ellie, who opens her eyes and her mouth. “I can’t stop, okay? As soon as the knife is out, I’ll need you to apply pressure to one side while I stitch up the other. You understand?”

“Yeah,” Ellie confirms, before biting down on the belt and holding it between her teeth.

“I can talk to take your mind off it,” Dina offers, grasping Ellie’s wrist with her left hand and hovering her right over the hilt of the knife. “Do you think that would help?” She looks up at Ellie’s face, and when she nods, she grasps the hilt of the knife and pulls it out.

It makes a horrible squelching noise, and Ellie doesn’t so much scream as whine painfully into the belt.

Immediately, Dina throws away the knife and presses the rag to the back of Ellie’s forearm. Then, she takes Ellie’s free hand and holds it there to take over. “Remember,” she says, grabbing the needle holder. “Apply as much pressure as you can.”

Out of the corner of her eyes, she sees Ellie nod, but she doesn’t stop to reassure her again. Instead, she gets started on the first stitch, working as quickly as she can, her own free hand holding Ellie’s wrist as still as possible.

“Okay, so as I was saying earlier,” Dina starts, trying not to pay attention to Ellie’s pained gasps and rattles. She doesn’t have the time to imagine how her skin and flesh must be burning with pain, or how each stitch probably feels ten times worse than usual. “Tash said she’s making her special stew today, and I really wanted to be there for it. She always makes sure to give me an extra large helping of it, too. She’s such a sweetheart.”

She starts on the second stitch.

“And did you know I once asked Jesse what he thought of it, and he said he didn’t like it? Honestly, I should have broken up with him right then and there.” Her voice is shaking, and with some annoyance she feels her own eyes well up with tears. Angrily, she wipes them away. “I bet you’d never let me down like that.”

With the belt between her teeth, Ellie can’t answer, but she grunts in something other than pain and that’s enough for Dina at the moment. Her standards are very low.

After the eighth stitch, she curses the fact that it was a thick hunting knife, but at least it went clean through and didn’t go in at an angle. That would have been a nightmare to fix. At the moment, she has no clue if any of Ellie’s sinews have been cut, but the fact that her fingers are still twitching is enough for her to cling onto hope that Ellie won’t lose the use of her dominant hand. She wishes Dr. Zhou or Dr. Roberts were here, so Dina could merely assist.

“At least you didn’t get hurt in the gut again, right?” Dina says, tying off the final stitch before turning Ellie’s arm over and taking off the rag. Her friend has done a good job in applying pressure, but there’s still plenty of blood to be wiped away before Dina can start on the first stitch all over again. “Imagine if I had to patch up your stomach. Or your bowels. Fuck, we would stink up the whole bunker.”

Ellie’s left hand comes to rest on Dina’s waist, as it’s no longer needed to hold the rag.

“I know,” Dina says, unsure of what she’s even saying anymore. “We’re already stinking up the place. You with your blood and me with my stupid heat hormones.” She hopes her stitches won’t too badly mess up Ellie’s beautiful tattoo. “But you must be pretty used to stinking up a room all by yourself, so this probably isn’t even anything new for you.”

Ellie squeezes her skin, her nails digging into the top of Dina’s jeans with every poke of the needle. At this point, Dina isn’t sure if anyone else would still be conscious. She’s had patients who have fainted from less pain. But she’s glad for it, too. It means Ellie is fighting, and Dina really needs her to fight. She’s not sure how much blood Ellie has lost, but it can’t have been enough for her to bleed out.

“I know it’s a touchy subject for you, but I always liked your scent. From the very beginning.” Dina wipes at her eyes again, forcefully having to steady her hand to keep going with the fifth stitch on the back of Ellie’s forearm. “And I really don’t give a fuck if it makes other people angry. If they can’t hack it, they can get  _ fucked.” _

The swearing is a coping mechanism, and she doesn’t bother censoring herself.

It takes only a few more minutes before she finally ties off the last stitch, and as soon as they’re all done, she grabs the gauze and starts wrapping the wound. Once it’s secured, Dina pulls both of Ellie’s palms into her lap. They’re cut, too, and bloody, though not nearly as bad as she’d feared.

“Thank you,” she says as she kisses the inside of Ellie’s left wrist. “Thank you for saving me.”

With a shrug, Ellie seems to say  _ you would have done the same, _ and Dina smiles at her before disinfecting the cuts. They don’t need stitches,  _ thank fuck, _ and Dina keeps the wrapping simple but efficient. Gently, she removes the belt from Ellie’s mouth and sets it aside, ignoring the deep gouges left by her friend’s teeth.

“I think you should rest,” Dina says, looking properly around them for the first time. The bunker is not terribly big, but it houses a bed with a metal frame and a mattress, which will have to do for now. At the bottom of it, two blankets sit neatly folded, and a pillow is placed on top of them. “I didn’t know Eugene was this damn orderly.”

“Could be worse,” Ellie says, moving her jaw to work out some of the tension. “I was worried this was some kind of sex dungeon or something.” She looks tired, and Dina gets to her feet so she can help Ellie up by supporting her under her armpits.

“I  _ wish _ this was a sex dungeon,” Dina says, walking them both over to the bed and helping Ellie sit down. She removes Ellie’s backpack first and sets it on the ground next to the bed. “He’s fucking lonely.” She tugs off Ellie’s shoes and socks next, before pushing her down to her back. “You need to rest now.”

“But what if the raiders attack?” Ellie asks, lifting up just slightly when Dina shoves the pillow under her head and tucks her feet beneath the folded blankets. “I don’t want you to have to face them alone.” The exhaustion is clear as day on her face, and Dina leans over her to press her lips to Ellie’s temple. After, she leans their foreheads together and closes her eyes.

“Don’t argue with me,” Dina whispers, laying her hand on Ellie’s chest, right over her heart.

Despite her wounds, Ellie lays her left hand on Dina’s.

“I’m fine,” she murmurs, nuzzling against Dina’s nose. “I’m fine, Dina. I’m fine.”

Letting out a shaky breath, Dina pulls away so she can lay her head on Ellie’s chest instead.

“You will be,” she whispers, listening to Ellie’s reassuring heartbeat.

\----

As Ellie sleeps – or rather while she’s passed out – Dina investigates the rest of the bunker.

She finds more candles, and puts them on the table without lighting them, just in case the first ones burn down. They’re thick and white and remind Dina of old synagogue candles she’s seen in pictures. She also checks in all the drawers at the other side of the room and finds a few bottles of water and dried food that Eugene must have stashed here for emergencies.

“Fucking life saver,” Dina murmurs as she closes the drawers back up again and wanders over to a bookshelf in the corner. She’s surprised to see a number of what appear to be romance titles, interspersed with several pornographic ones. “Good on you, Eugene.” She picks up one of the less steamy-looking books and moves a chair next to the bed so she can keep an eye on Ellie and read at the same time.

She can feel her adrenaline levels dropping, too, and contemplates laying down to nap. But that would be too dangerous. What if the locking mechanism has become brittle with age? What if the raiders found the hideout just like Eugene did before? She can’t risk it.

So instead of giving into her tiredness, she opens the book and starts to read.

About an hour later, she feels Ellie stir, and leans the book against her chest so she can look down at her friend.

“Hey you,” she says, reaching out and stroking through Ellie’s hair.

“Hey,” Ellie replies, her voice husky from sleep. “Whatcha reading?” Her head turns into the petting, and Dina smiles as she slides her fingers along her friend’s forehead and scratches gently at her scalp. Seeing Ellie groggy with something other than pain is a blessing.

“Werewolf erotica,” Dina replies, checking the page number she’s on before setting aside the book. “Eugene has specific tastes and I didn’t realize it’d go quite that deep. If you get what I’m saying.” She flicks Ellie’s nose, who scrunches up her face in response.

“Please don’t elaborate,” Ellie groans, turning away her face.

“Are you sure? I could read to you, if you want,” Dina teases her, squeezing Ellie’s shoulder. “It might teach you a trick or two.”

Ellie snorts.

“You think I need help in that department, do you? From werewolves?” she asks, her eyes squinting up at Dina. Her scent isn’t as subdued as usual, probably because she’s hurt, and Dina finds herself leaning in without meaning to.

“I don’t know. I haven’t had a chance to sample the wares, because  _ someone _ ran from my apartment when I offered to have sex with them.” It’s a dangerous game, flirting with Ellie while she’s injured, because there’s no way Dina can actually jump her when she’s like this. Especially since there are bad guys outside, but she can’t help herself.

“I did not  _ run,” _ Ellie badly defends herself. “And I told you, it’s not you. It’s me. It’d be—”

“Dangerous,” Dina finishes her sentence, rolling her eyes. “I remember.”

With a mutinous expression, Ellie tries to push herself up, before sinking back down when she moves her right arm wrong and irritates the fresh stab wound there. Unable to get into a position with more dignity, she simply glares up at Dina, who smiles at her.

“It’s not a joke, Dina,” she says, her expression too serious for their ridiculous situation. “We have no idea what could happen to you if we…” She looks away, and Dina leans close so her lips come to rest against the shell of Ellie’s ear.

“If we mate? Rut? Fuck?” She draws out the words, before pulling back just enough to see Ellie’s reaction. “I have condoms, if you’re worried about getting me pregnant.” Their lips are close, and Dina sees Ellie’s eyes drop down to stare at them. “If you’re afraid, we can go slow and figure it out together as we go.”

For the last several weeks, Dina has been wanting Ellie to kiss her, even while she was dating Jesse. She wasn’t ready to admit it to herself, or even sure if Ellie liked her back, but the uptick in Ellie’s pheromones tells her that it’s not just her.

They’re almost there, almost, when Ellie breathes out her next word.

“I’m immune,” she whispers, causing Dina to come up short.

“What?” she asks, startled.

“I’m immune,” Ellie says again, more strongly.

“What the hell are you talking about, Ellie? Immune to what?” Pulling back quickly, Dina sits back in her chair and stares down at her friend, who looks equal parts terrified and determined to talk about what she’s just said.

“I told you that I met Joel five years ago,” Ellie starts, laying her left hand on her right forearm, a little higher than the stab wound. The tattoo peeks out just beyond the gauze, and Dina nods and pulls her feet onto the chair so she can wrap her arms around her legs. “I only met him, because I was supposed to help create a cure for what turns people into clickers and infected. Because I’m—”

“Immune,” Dina whispers, confusion and upset warring in her chest. “I told you not to lie to me, Ellie. If you want to spare my feelings, at least have the decency to tell me.” Maybe she made a mistake, maybe Ellie’s scent isn’t telling her something after all. Maybe she is alone in this feeling.

“I’m not lying, Dina,” Ellie whispers, and her face is earnest and full of pain. “Joel was supposed to take me to a clinic run by the Fireflies. They were supposed to study me and figure out what makes me so special, but when we got there, Joel said they already had everything they needed. But the bite, it—it changed me, Dina. The bite is why I’m like this.”

Blood roaring in her ears, Dina’s gaze drops to Ellie’s right arm.

“Joel, Tommy and Maria are the only ones who know.” Ellie’s left hand moves back onto the bedspread, sliding a little closer to Dina without touching her. “So, you see? We have no idea what might happen to you if we mated. I don’t think I can get you infected, but what if I do? What if I pass it on to you like some kind of fucked up STI?”

Putting her feet back onto the floor of the bunker, Dina brings a hand to her face and slides it through her hair. It’s too much to process while they’re literally hiding from raiders. And less than two hours after Dina pulled a hunting knife from her friend’s forearm that had gone all the way through.

“Dina?” Ellie asks tentatively. “Can you… say something? I don’t know. Anything?”

The words sound defeated, and frightened, and Dina can’t stop herself from looking at Ellie’s face and to seek out her gaze. Green eyes are focused on her, and Ellie’s left hand twitches, fingers drumming on the bedspread.

“I get it now,” Dina says, reaching out and stilling Ellie’s moving hand. “The smell.” She picks up Ellie’s hand and brings it into her lap so she can stroke along the inside of her wrist. It’s one of the places where most scent glands are placed, aside from the neck and ankles. “I know what it reminded me of.”

Ellie’s trembling.

“It has that sweetness,” Dina continues, pressing her thumb against the quick pulse under Ellie’s skin. As she’s processing this new piece of information, more than one strange moment slots into place in her brain. And Ellie’s reluctance to have sex with her is not only explained, it’s painful. “That sweetness that infected people have, right? To lure uninfected into traps.”

“Yeah,” Ellie whispers, voice thick with emotion. “It’s why Joel and I could never stay anywhere for very long. Because people would smell it, and they couldn’t understand why it made them so angry.”

Of course Dina understands. If Ellie was fourteen by the time she was bitten, she had barely presented, and her scent would have still been developing. And then, it would have been broadcasting constantly, to try and find its place among the hierarchy. No wonder Ellie couldn’t be around people while her young alpha scent smelled rotten and dangerous. Before she could control it.

Lifting up Ellie’s arm, Dina presses a kiss against the wrist.

“You’re not going to infect me,” Dina says, lowering Ellie’s hand back to her lap. “I got your blood mixed up with mine in the bunker. Not to mention that we operated on you when Joel brought you to us. And he was bleeding, too. You’re not going to infect me, Ellie.”

She says the words mainly to reassure her friend, but it feels good to hear them just the same. If Ellie’s blood or other bodily fluids were dangerous and infectious, Joel would have turned long ago. And then Ellie would have never come to Jackson, and she would have probably died out in the woods somewhere. But Dina doesn’t have the mental capacity right now to feel anything but relieved that they’re both fine. They’re both alive. And Ellie is  _ immune, _ but she isn’t deadly, no matter how much she may think otherwise. She’s just a girl, and Dina feels her resolve to stay awake crumble with every passing second.

After a moment of hesitation, she puts Ellie’s arm back on the bed and waves her hands at her.

“Scoot over,” she says, watching with tired eyes as Ellie awkwardly shuffles to the wall while trying to keep her wounds out of harm’s way. When a bit more space is available, Dina kicks off her shoes and sits down next to Ellie. It should be a tight fit, but Dina doesn’t care about personal space. “I’m too fucking tired to deal with anything else today.”

“I understand. It’s a lot. I’m sorry, Dina, I didn’t mean—” but before Ellie can finish her sentence, Dina puts her hand on her face to shut her up. Then, she snuggles up against Ellie’s left side and uses her friend’s shoulder as a pillow.

“Shush,” she says, before closing her eyes. Her hand finds purchase on Ellie’s stomach, which quivers a little under her touch. “Behave yourself, okay? And if there’s anything dangerous going on, you can wake me. Or you can sleep, too. I honestly just do not care right now if the raiders bomb our shelter. I am just… I’m tired.”

Is it childish? Yeah, fine, but Dina doesn’t feel like thinking about it too hard.

At least not until she’s had some rest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 😬😬😬
> 
> pls don't b mad
> 
> if you want to support me you can find me on tumblr @goshdarnitjay


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> enjoy 👀💖🌈
> 
> [CW for NSFW]

By the time Dina wakes, she’s lost complete control of reality.

She doesn’t remember that she’s in a bunker, or that they’ve been chased there by raiders. All she can tell is that she’s close to someone who smells sweet and comforting, and that if she turns her face just right, she can bring her nose to soft skin.

With a heavy exhale, she curls her hand harder against the skin under her fingers and half-expects to fall back asleep. But then she registers sweat on the back of her neck, and a hand resting on her shoulder blades that runs unnaturally hot.

“Ellie?” Dina asks groggily, snuffling further against her.

“I’m awake,” Ellie says, keeping her hand still and unmoving against Dina’s back. “I’m here.”

At the same time, Dina finally realizes her hand has slipped under Ellie’s t-shirt of its own volition. The skin of Ellie’s stomach is also hot to the touch, and Dina contemplates pulling it out and placing it back on top of the fabric. Then she decides to leave it where it is.

“Did you sleep at all?” Dina asks, wondering how long she was out for.

“A bit,” Ellie says, letting her hand slide away when Dina sits up. “Do you feel any better?”

Swaying a little once she’s upright, Dina brings her right hand to her forehead while looking down at where her left is still resting on Ellie’s stomach. Before she can question it, she draws her fingers along Ellie’s stomach and down to her belly button. Finally, her fingers come to rest on Ellie’s left hipbone, and she knows her heat is tired of waiting to be acknowledged.

“Dina?” Ellie asks softly, her stomach quivering under the attention and her left hand reaching out to hold Dina’s waist. If it’s supposed to steady her, it has the opposite effect. With every bit of self-control Dina has, she stops herself from straddling Ellie and rutting down on her lap.

“Sorry,” Dina says, rubbing at her temple and closing her eyes. It doesn’t help. If anything, she feels like she can smell Ellie’s enticing scent more intensely than before. Angrily, she balls the hand on Ellie’s stomach into a fist. “It’s my heat.”

Ellie squeezes her waist a little harder, seemingly unaware that her touch alone is adding to Dina’s troubles. Maybe it wasn’t such a smart decision to take a nap, especially while huffing Ellie’s pheromones and while her adrenaline would have dropped off considerably.

“Is there anything I can do?” Ellie asks, and when Dina opens her eyes, she sees Ellie push herself painfully into a sitting position, cradling her right forearm to her chest. Her stupid face is full of earnest hope again that she will be able to help Dina through whatever hardship she’s experiencing.

In response, Dina’s eyes fall down to Ellie’s lap. And she sees it, the swell at the front of Ellie’s jeans. Not that it’s much of a surprise. Dina must be broadcasting like crazy that she’s ready and willing to mate, and no matter how much Ellie may deny her, her body knows what it wants.

“You can pound me into the mattress,” Dina says, her voice flat and sarcastic as she flops back onto the mattress and rubs her face with both hands. Her teeth are buzzing again with the desire to bite down. To mark. It’s worse than usual, and she wonders if it’s because Ellie’s scent has been changed on a chemical level.

“Um,” Ellie replies, shuffling around until she’s leaning against the wall of the bunker.

“I know, I know,” Dina replies, staring at the ceiling. “You think it’s dangerous. You’re worried that if you come on me, I’ll turn into a frog at the end of the night.” She’s babbling. She feels delirious. And Ellie is staring down at her, eyes unnervingly clear. Shouldn’t she be heat-sick, too, at this point? It would only be fair, surely. Maybe when she said she was immune, she meant to more than fungus.

“I told you, Dina, it’s not a joke. We don’t know—” Ellie tries again, but Dina merely scoffs.

“If your blood doesn’t kill me, neither will what comes out of your knot,” she says, one of her hands sliding down to her own stomach. She wants to masturbate if Ellie isn’t going to help her through her heat. She’s certainly not going to force her to change her mind. “Look, Ellie, if you don’t want to have sex, you don’t have to. But I’m telling you: I’m not scared.”

To placate her body, she rubs at the skin below her own belly button, trying to get her heat to calm down and stop making her wet. Which Ellie  _ must _ be able to smell. Under other circumstances, Dina may have been embarrassed, but here, stuck as they are in an underground bunker, she finds herself not caring.

“I am,” Ellie whispers, her eyes downcast. “I don’t want to lose you.”

Pain tugging in her chest, Dina pushes herself back up onto her knees, so she and Ellie are face to face again.

“You won’t lose me,” she whispers, pressing her lips to Ellie’s cheek. “I promise you won’t lose me.” There is blood crusted on Ellie’s nose, and Dina wipes at it distractedly. They should tidy themselves up now that it seems unlikely the raiders will find them. “I promise, Ellie.”

Keeping her right arm held against her stomach, Ellie curls her left around Dina’s waist and tugs her close. Their foreheads come to rest together, and Dina places her hands on Ellie’s shoulders, breathing in her exhales.

“I was about to kiss you yesterday,” Dina whispers against Ellie’s cheek.

“I know,” Ellie replies, the nails of her left hand digging into Dina’s back.

“Would you have let me?” Dina asks, stroking her thumbs against Ellie’s neck.

“Yes,” Ellie breathes, turning her face slowly until their lips are almost touching. “I wanted you to.” She slides their noses against one another, and Dina finds herself nuzzling back as much as she can. “I wanted you to kiss me since the first time I woke up at the clinic.”

Ellie’s scent is everywhere. It burns in Dina’s nostrils. She wants to drown in it, wants to drown in Ellie herself. Wants to get as close as possible.

“Fuck, Ellie,” Dina whispers, tugging ineffectually at Ellie’s vest. “I know that you’re scared.” Her nails dig into Ellie’s chest through the fabric of her t-shirt, and Ellie lets out a gasp of pleasure and pain. In response, her hand slides under Dina’s sweater. Even through the gauze, Ellie’s hand is scorching to the touch, and makes Dina want to grind her hips on Ellie’s lap.

“I’m terrified,” Ellie confirms, closing her eyes as Dina runs her lips over her cheek and along the back of her nose. “And I’ve never—It’s never been an option for me to—” She swallows thickly, and Dina drops down her head to press a kiss against the front of her throat.

“What do you usually do when you’re in rut?” Dina asks, imagining Ellie naked and ravenous, on the hunt for someone to mate with. It makes her want to bite down on the pale skin under her lips and tongue, but she thinks better of it. Biting is reserved for later.

Tipping back her head, Ellie’s hips shift uncomfortably, and Dina has half a mind to drop her hand down to the bulge in her pants. Just to feel it. Just for a moment. But she knows that if she touches Ellie there, she’s not going to come back to herself until Ellie has knotted her.

“Sometimes, Joel and I spar. Sometimes I hunt,” Ellie says shakily, swallowing again.

“That sounds harsh,” Dina replies, sliding her left hand into the back of Ellie’s t-shirt to seek out hot skin. “You know what I did when I realized my heat was coming after you shared your scent with me?” When Ellie doesn’t respond, Dina slides their cheeks together in a nuzzle. “I touched myself while clutching your flannel to my face like a fifteen-year old pervert.”

Her reward is an unsexy squeak from Ellie, and Dina finds the spell broken.

She laughs, and sits back on her feet, the worry and stress from the day falling off her shoulders in heavy chunks. When Ellie frowns at her reproachfully, she only laughs more, and pushes herself to her feet to grab one of the bottles of water from Eugene’s stash.

“That’s not funny,” Ellie grumbles as Dina pulls out a clean rag from her backpack and waves Ellie over to a chair. “What if I had believed you?” With an aching grunt, she stands up and shuffles over. She falls into the chair with an ungraceful plonking noise, and Dina is inexplicably charmed.

“I wasn’t making a joke,” Dina clarifies, before pouring some of the water on the rag. “I totally masturbated while huffing your scent.” She shrugs and lifts Ellie’s blushing face so she can clean off the blood. “Gotta say, you were a pretty decent lover in my fantasies. You should be proud of yourself.”

“Fuck you,” Ellie squeaks out, closing her eyes so Dina can clean her properly.

“I’d love it if you fucked me, Ellie, we’ve been through this.”

“Please stop,” Ellie groans, leaning back in the chair and baring her neck for cleaning next.

“Fine. You’re such a prude,” Dina says, pulling the chair by the bed over to Ellie so she can sit opposite her. Gently, she starts cleaning Ellie’s left arm of dirt, blood, and sweat. It won’t be enough to properly keep them from smelling, but at least this way Dina won’t have to worry about whatever disease might be in the  _ raiders’ _ blood.

“How long was I asleep for anyway?” Dina asks, looking down at Ellie’s wristwatch. The display is a little fucked up, but Dina can still see that her little nap turned into more of a full night of sleep, even though it’s now only late in the afternoon. “Five hours? Fuck! No wonder I feel so fucking hot.”

After pouring more water on it, Dina hands the rag off to Ellie so she herself can get rid of the blood.

“I feel like Missy would want me to make a joke,” Ellie says, cheeks still dark even in the light of the candles. “About you always being hot. But you know what? I don’t think you deserve it.” Her left hand is a little clumsy on Dina’s cheek, but Dina only smiles.

“Since you still said it, I will accept the compliment graciously.” Dina leans a little closer so Ellie has an easier time, and she watches as Ellie’s mouth twists in concentration. “Has anyone ever told you that you look really cute when you’re making that serious face?”

Hand stalling, Ellie looks down at Dina, her brows furrowing in confusion.

“Didn’t think so,” Dina whispers, cupping Ellie’s cheeks. While Ellie drops the rag, Dina gets up and sits down on her lap, keeping one of her feet firmly planted on the floor. “What would you say if I kissed you right now?”

To her great delight, Ellie’s hand comes to rest on the small of her back, holding her close.

“Dina,” Ellie husks, nudging their noses together. “Please kiss me.”

It’s such a non-alpha reaction, this plea for touch, that Dina finds herself unable to not grind down against Ellie’s lap in response. And when she feels Ellie’s arm tighten around her, she gives in and brings their lips together in a kiss.

While Ellie whimpers, Dina whines as she tilts her head to the side so she can press herself closer without having their noses awkwardly stuck together. As she sinks into the kiss, she feels her self-control start to slip. Her hips start a soft back and forth motion, almost in tandem to their lips, and she has to work very hard not to squish Ellie’s injured right arm in between their stomachs.

If Ellie’s skin is hot to the touch, then the inside of her mouth is scorching, but Dina can’t say she isn’t enjoying the way her tongue gently moves against Ellie’s while she runs her hands through her friend’s hair.

“Ellie,” Dina pants, pulling away so she can admire her handiwork. Ellie’s eyes are closed, and her lips look properly made out with, so Dina counts it as a win. “You should really lie down.” She leans her head to the side to nibble and suck on the shell of Ellie’s ear, her right hand sliding down and along the front of Ellie’s t-shirt.

“Yeah,” Ellie agrees, without making any attempt to move.

So Dina kisses her again.

\----

After another spectacular ten minutes of softly making out, Dina wishes she could wave a magic wand and make their clothes disappear without having to get up and maneuver around wounds and belts. But instead, she tries to be responsible.

It’s a tough ask, especially because Ellie’s mouth follows her for more attention when she pulls away. She gives in once, twice, three more times, before she puts her hand on Ellie’s chest and pushes her down.

“Ellie,” Dina says with a laugh when Ellie holds her close with her less injured arm. “I’m serious this time. You should lay down. We can continue this on the cot.”

Ellie has the audacity to smirk.

“Oh, so it matters when  _ you’re  _ serious?” she asks, her pupils blown wide. “Cause whenever  _ I’m _ serious—” Dina shuts her up with a kiss. It’s a neat trick she’ll have to remember for Jackson, if they manage to make it back without dying.

“It’s just because your serious ideas are shit,” Dina says when she pulls away again. “No offense.”

“Thanks,” Ellie replies, voice flat. To her credit, she lets Dina get up, and her eyes widen when Dina drops her jacket and pulls her sweater over her head in quick succession, leaving her in her bra and jeans.

“I’m not fucking around, Ellie,” Dina says, dropping the sweater to the floor and taking off her bra next. “I’m way too far in my heat cycle not to have an orgasm.” She relishes in the way Ellie’s eyes fly across her skin, taking in her naked chest. It does nothing to quell the fire in Dina’s pants, and she steps back over to Ellie. “I want you to help. Please.”

Deliberately slowly, Ellie lifts her left hand and slides it along a scar right above the waist of Dina’s jeans. She looks like she’s on the verge of asking where she got it, before seemingly thinking better of it.

“If there’s anything weird,” Ellie starts as she gets back to her feet. “If at any point, you start to feel like there’s something wrong, please tell me. I don’t want to hurt you, Dina. Even if I can’t get you infected, we don’t know how my fucked up system will react.”

“I promise,” Dina says, laying her hands on Ellie’s chest and looking up at her. “I promise if anything makes me uncomfortable, I’ll tell you. But the same goes for you, too, okay? If you feel like you don’t want to do something, we can stop. I may have to masturbate a lot, but I don’t want to make you do something you don’t want, either.”

“Yeah,” Ellie agrees. “Okay.”

With care, Dina rounds Ellie so she can help her out of her vest one arm at a time. The t-shirt is more difficult. “Come on, big alpha, sit on the bed so we can get this off of you,” she says, taking Ellie’s hand and pulling her over.

It takes them a bit to get it up and over the top of Ellie’s head, especially without irritating her right forearm, but when Dina can finally let it drop to the ground, she’s pleasantly surprised to see Ellie has forgone a bra this morning.

“You’re gorgeous,” Dina says without thinking, eyes drawn to the fresh scar that has been left behind by the bullet wound and subsequent surgery. A fresh surge of heat sears through her, and she finds herself unable not to sit down on Ellie’s lap again. “Fuck, Ellie, I didn’t think we’d end up having sex while out on the run. I was really looking forward to just doing you in my room.”

“Sorry,” Ellie murmurs, dropping her eyes down to Dina’s chest and following with her mouth soon after. Her kisses are soft, but not tentative, and Dina likes to think that Ellie has thought long and hard about doing this with her before. When her lips find Dina’s nipple, Dina digs her nails into Ellie’s broad shoulders.

“Ellie,” Dina breathes, grinding down on Ellie’s lap as her nipple is pulled into Ellie’s searing mouth. “Fuck, Ellie.” Leaning down her face, she presses kisses against the top of Ellie’s head, letting one of her hands slide against the sweat gathering at the back of Ellie’s neck. “I hope you’re ready for me to take your knot.”

At her words, Ellie greets her with a look she hasn’t seen until now. And before Dina can say anything else, she finds herself on her back with Ellie’s heavy body between her thighs, and Ellie kissing her. Ravishing her mouth.

Despite the kissing, Dina notices the shift in Ellie’s scent. Pain.

“Lay on your back, you idiot,” Dina says quickly in between kisses, pushing at Ellie’s shoulders. She can hardly stand the feeling of Ellie’s naked stomach on her own while they’re both still wearing their jeans. “This is not the time to discover your alpha dominance.”

She has to push against Ellie’s chest to get her to sit up. The stitches on her forearm don’t seem to be bleeding, so Dina lets it go and sits up instead.

“Besides, before we get to the actual fucking, we should probably get you out of those restraints,” Dina says, her voice low and thick with arousal as her hands find purchase on Ellie’s belt and start to undo it. With some annoyance, she finds that her fingers are trembling from excitement and anticipation. She’s never felt less in control during one of her heats.

For a moment, she stalls as she pulls down the zipper. She can’t believe that after so much back and forth, she’s finally about to get what she wants. And what she now knows Ellie has wanted for a while, too.

“You don’t have to,” Ellie says, clearly taking her hesitation for some sort of rejection. “We don’t have to.”

With determination, Dina sits up on her knees and pulls Ellie into the kiss with one hand while sliding the other into Ellie’s pants and firmly grasping her length. To her great satisfaction, it makes Ellie gasp into her mouth, and Dina drags her fingers up and down with enough pressure to drive Ellie wild.

Dina can feel the blood thrumming in Ellie’s cock, and she almost loses herself to the feeling.

“Ellie,” she says, sliding her hand back out of her friend’s pants to get a grip on herself. “Get on your back so I can ride you.” She bites softly at her bottom lip, before letting it go with a smirk. “Please.” It’s unfair, perhaps, to tease Ellie like this, and yet it’s also too much fun to stop.

To her great satisfaction, Ellie follows her directions and lays down with her head on the pillow, both of her hands twitching on the bedspread. She wants to grab, and Dina doesn’t intend to deny her for long. Before getting back to Ellie’s pants, Dina gets up from the bed so she can undo her own and slide them down. She doesn’t make a game out of it, or try to make it look enticing, because she’s waited long enough.

She doesn’t miss the way Ellie’s eyes widen when Dina draws down her panties and they stick to her for a moment before coming loose. She’s soaked, and now they both know it.

Completely naked, she kneels on the bed again and curls her fingers around Ellie’s jeans and briefs. As soon as Ellie lifts up her hips, she starts tugging, and she tries not to stare too much when Ellie’s cock is finally revealed.

Dina’s first thought isn’t that it’s  _ big, _ though it is.

No, her first thought when she drops the pants off the bed, is that Ellie is beautiful. There are scars on her that Dina will want to find out the origin of, and there are freckles on her chest and on her shoulders.

“Ellie,” Dina breathes, reaching out with her hand and grasping the bottom of her cock, pushing it up and against Ellie’s stomach. With a smirk at Ellie’s twitching hips, Dina leans down and nuzzles her nose against the side of her cock and breathes in her musk. “You smell so fucking good.”

She wants to put her mouth on Ellie, just as much as she wants Ellie to put her mouth on her, but it’s not what she needs right now. So with nothing but a quick nip and lick, Dina moves up Ellie’s body so she can slide her cunt against her instead.

“What about the condoms?” Ellie asks, her eyes closed and her head thrown back as Dina rubs the tip of her cock against her opening. She’s teasing them both at this point, Ellie as much as herself. Her neck is pretty, exposed as it is, and Dina gives into the urge to bite into it, just hard enough to bruise.

Ellie lets out a whimpering sound, her left hand finding purchase on Dina’s naked thigh. Her hand is rough and calloused, and Dina wants it inside her. She wants so many things, but she knows Ellie is right. Protection is important.

“Yeah.” With some reluctance, Dina pulls back from Ellie’s cock and reaches for her backpack, which is sitting next to the bed. She rummages around in it, while Ellie seems to be trying to slow her breathing. Her cock is warm and solid against Dina’s thigh.

“Why do you even have condoms on you?” Ellie asks, looking at her through a haze of desire.

“A girl can dream, can’t she?” Dina shoots back at her, letting out a triumphant little squeal as she pulls out the plastic box in which she keeps her precious stash. “I mean, I didn’t think it would happen like this, but.” She shrugs. “I roll with the punches.”

She picks out one of them, before shutting the lid again and putting the box back into the backpack.

“Let’s just hope this fits,” she says with a smirk, dragging the fingernail of her pointer finger along Ellie’s length to emphasize her point.

It has the desired effect.

“Shut up,” Ellie grumbles, bringing her left hand to her face to hide her embarrassment.

With a laugh, Dina starts rolling on the condom, pressing a kiss against Ellie’s hipbone.

“It was a compliment,” she teases, stroking up and along Ellie’s cock once the condom is in place to check how secure it is.

“Fuck you,” Ellie says, moving her hips into Dina’s rhythmic strokes.

“If you insist.” Dina smirks as she sits astride Ellie’s lap, pressing her down into the mattress and trapping her cock between her cunt and Ellie’s stomach. Placing her hands on Ellie’s chest, Dina slowly moves back and forth, coating Ellie in her wetness.

“Dina,” Ellie’s hand finds Dina’s thigh again. “Please.”

The word sends a shudder through her.

“You’re such a good alpha,” Dina praises her, reaching between them and lining up Ellie’s cock with her opening. “And good alphas deserve to be rewarded.”

It’s been a few weeks since Dina last had sex, so the head of Ellie’s length is a bit of a challenge before she finally relaxes enough to accept it. Once the head is in, the rest follows more easily, and Dina sinks down inch by agonizing inch while watching Ellie’s reaction.

Ellie’s eyes are focused on her cock slowly disappearing inside Dina, and the grip she has on Dina’s thigh becomes almost painful. Her whole body seems taut like a bowstring set to snapping, the muscles in her chest and arms at full attention.

When Ellie finally bottoms out, Dina takes a moment to steady herself.

“You feel fucking fantastic,” she says, laying a hand against the skin just below Ellie’s belly button, her palm half on herself and where they’re connected. “How are you doing down there?” She squeezes the walls of her cunt around Ellie and smirks when her friend lets out a gasp.

“Fuck, Dina, you—you’re so fucking hot,” Ellie says, digging her heels into the bed.

“You’re good to keep going, then?” Dina asks, drawing her nails from Ellie’s stomach to her breastbone. “Okay for me to move? To fuck myself on your  _ big, alpha cock?”  _ She’s playing dirty now, but it’s too good not to watch Ellie squirm for a bit.

“So good,” Ellie rasps, her hips helplessly bucking up and drawing a gasp from Dina.

“Okay,” Dina says, planting her hands on Ellie’s shoulders. “Here goes nothing.”

\----

She starts off slow to get used to Ellie’s girth, barely moving back and forth and merely undulating her hips. Despite this, Ellie already seems off in dream land, her eyes squeezed closed and her teeth biting her bottom lip. It’s cute, and Dina can’t wait to find out what her reaction will be when Dina really starts moving.

Around them, the bunker fills with pheromones, and Dina finds herself unable to keep to the slow pace. Something in Ellie’s scent makes her want to move faster, go harder, hit  _ deeper. _ Sweat starts to gather on her forehead, and her nails dig into Ellie’s shoulders as she rolls her hips harder into Ellie’s cock.

Her mouth opens to form words, but all that comes out are gasps and pants, and she gives up on communicating verbally entirely. Instead, she clasps Ellie’s left hand and holds it tightly to her, whimpering and whining as Ellie catches her drift and starts moving with her, using her heels against the bed as leverage.

With Ellie’s hips moving against her, the head of her cock nudges against Dina’s front wall, and she tries to keep hitting that angle. Ellie is hot and thick, and Dina can feel the beginning of her knot every time she slides down.

“Ellie,” she grunts, her eyes taking in the visual of her and Ellie coming together over and over again, pace picking up with every roll of her hips. Sweat drops off her forehead and onto Ellie’s chest, and Dina continues to lose her grasp on reality.

Her mind is laser-focusing on Ellie.

Her scent, her hands, her chest, her breasts, her furrowed brows, and her throbbing cock.

“Slow, slow down,” Ellie gasps out suddenly, her nails digging painfully into Dina’s hip as Ellie’s legs tremble and she stops moving. “I’m—I’m too close. Just, for a moment.” But Dina isn’t about to be denied her prize.

With renewed fervor, she bobs up and down on Ellie’s length, squeezing and clenching the walls of her cunt in a way that she can tell drives Ellie absolutely wild. And if the hardness of her knot is anything to go by, Dina knows it won’t be long until they’re tied. A part of her wishes she could take off the condom and let herself get filled with Ellie’s come. A primal part of her brain demands it, but she knows she isn’t ready to be a mother. Not yet. Not when she’s only just had occasion to have Ellie all to herself.

“Dina,” Ellie pleads, whining and quivering, and on the verge of orgasm.

“I want you to come all over me,” Dina gasps out, moving her hips in a particularly rough twist that seems to do the trick, because Ellie’s body seizes up, her mouth drops open and her head flies back against the pillow to expose her throat. It’s a sign of submission that Dina’s omega side laps up hungrily, and she continues to move and squeeze, wishing every last drop were pouring into her right now.

Chest heaving, Ellie opens her eyes.

As soon as she does, Dina recognizes a shift in the air. She feels it again, that fear and excitement from the other night when Ellie had shown off what she could do. And with nothing but a whimper, Dina finds herself struggling and grinding to pop Ellie’s knot into her cunt.

She feels hands on her hips, tugging. Two hands.

“Ellie,” she whines, wriggling her hips back and forth on her friend’s knot. “Ellie, your forearm.”

In response, Ellie bares her teeth.

“Mine,” she growls, and Dina nearly drops forward at the swell of dominating alpha pheromones sweeping the bunker. Only half-paying attention, she belatedly realizes that her heat may have drop-kicked Ellie straight into her own rut, which does not help their situation.

“Fuck,” Dina sobs with pleasure as the knot rubs her in all the right places. Still, it seems too big and inflated to budge. A whine builds in her chest at her inability to be joined with her alpha, and Ellie is starting to sound equally frustrated.

The solution presents itself without Dina’s input.

One moment, she’s grinding down, the next she finds herself on her back with Ellie above her.

At this new angle, and with Ellie pinning her down, Dina feels something inside her untwist. Ellie’s teeth are bared, and her hands have spread Dina’s thighs wide. Her chest is flushed an angry red color, and her scent is demanding obedience.

“Mine,” Ellie growls again, pressing Dina down harder into the mattress.

“Yours,” Dina replies, finally feeling something in her shift and give way to allow Ellie entrance. With a pop, she’s sucked fully inside, and Dina groans at the pain of being filled to the brim with her friend’s knot. It’s the pain that finally does her in, and she feels her toes curl as she comes, her mouth finding purchase on Ellie’s shoulder. She doesn’t bite down, but she wants to.

Her walls clench of their own accord, trying to make sense of the intrusion, and the feeling must be enough for Ellie, who stiffens above her. Arms wrapping around Ellie’s back, Dina holds her as she comes, too, and they both rock softly back and forth as they ride out their orgasms.

\----

Finally, they’re tied, and Dina feels her heat sickness settle down ever so slightly. It will take more than a single orgasm with a knot inside her to satisfy her body that she’s properly knocked up, but for the moment, she enjoys the feeling of Ellie settled inside her and on top of her.

“I’d say that was a pretty successful first go,” she says once she’s caught her breath, already starting to feel a little sore from forcing Ellie’s knot in. Her hands slide lazily along Ellie’s back, and she tips her face to the side so she can kiss Ellie’s ear. “How about you?”

But Ellie doesn’t respond.

Her face is pressed to Dina’s neck, and her hips have stilled.

Worriedly furrowing her brows, Dina squeezes the back of Ellie’s neck.

“Are you okay?” she asks softly, slightly terrified that Ellie regrets what they’ve just done. “Ellie? Come on, baby, talk to me.” Gently, she tries to lift Ellie’s face from her neck. When Ellie doesn’t shift, Dina tries to tug a little harder.

Not a moment later, her hands are high up above her head and Ellie has her pinned to the mattress. Her green eyes look dangerous and feral, and Dina wonders for the first time if maybe she should have heeded her warnings and listened to her hesitations before jumping headfirst into mating.

“Ellie?” Dina asks, tentatively wriggling her wrists in Ellie’s grip. They won’t budge. With a growl, Ellie starts moving her hips, drawing a gasp from Dina every time she pulls her knot back just a little too far to be fully comfortable. “Ellie, fuck.”

It’s amazing and terrifying, and Dina drops back her head in submission, baring her neck to Ellie’s hungry gaze. As soon as she does, Ellie’s teeth latch on, just hard enough to leave bruises in their wake.

The bedframe starts squeaking every time Ellie slams back into her, and Dina finds herself enjoying this new dynamic in a way she’s not sure is healthy. She liked sweet and attentive Ellie, but this version of her certainly has its perks.

Then, all higher brain function is removed from her when she feels Ellie’s teeth at the spot just behind her ear.

She starts tugging at Ellie’s grip, wanting to dig her nails into her back to relieve some of the tension, but again she is denied. Instead, Ellie seems to pull back harder and further, and Dina can’t do anything but take it.

Maybe it’s the fact that she’s seen Ellie pull back from what she wants so many times, or how often she’s seen Ellie step away from a fight Dina knew she could win. But being at her mercy while she fucks Dina to her own satisfaction is a kink Dina didn’t know she had.

“Fuck, baby,” Dina whines, giving into the moment with entirely too much enthusiasm. “Harder.”

She wishes she could watch the muscles of Ellie’s back move as she picks up her speed, and once they’re back in Jackson, she’s definitely fucking Ellie in front of the mirror in her apartment. Because now that she knows what it’s like to have Ellie on top of and inside of her, she has zero plans of giving it up post-bunker.

She feels the telltale tingles of another orgasm in her feet first, slowly crawling up her body. And when Ellie lets out another growl against her neck and grinds her down into the mattress, she lets go with reckless abandon, moaning loudly into Ellie’s ear.

While Dina shudders and shakes, Ellie keeps rutting for a few seconds longer, before succumbing to her own release, which makes her finally let go of Dina’s hands. Instead, she nuzzles the underside of Dina’s jaw and slowly moves her hips back and forth, as though to encourage her come to settle appropriately despite the restrictions of the condom.

“Well,” Dina says through pants, lowering her hands and curling them around Ellie’s shoulders. “That sure was something, wasn’t it?” She presses her lips to the top of Ellie’s head and curls her leg around her friend’s waist.

Ellie barely grunts in recognition.

“You back to being you?” Dina asks gently, stroking the back of Ellie’s neck.

“Yeah,” Ellie says, pulling back a little so she can look into Dina’s eyes. “Sorry. I—I don’t really know what happened.” She looks down to where they’re still tied, despite Ellie’s best efforts to fuck them apart just moments earlier. “Are you alright? Did I hurt you?”

With a smirk, Dina pulls her into a kiss.

“Just my pride,” she teases, before tugging on Ellie’s bottom lip with her teeth. “I can’t believe you held me down with a stabbed arm. That’s fucking embarrassing for me. But very,  _ very _ impressive for you.” She slides down her hand and grasps a handful of Ellie’s naked ass. “Where have you been hiding that alpha energy?”

With an annoyed scoff, Ellie pulls back and puts her face on the mattress next to Dina’s head.

“My arm is killing me, actually,” she admits, and Dina puts a hand on her own face.

“Yeah, I’m not fucking surprised,” Dina replies, patting Ellie’s butt. “Come on, tough girl. We need to check those stitches to make sure you didn’t fuck them up too badly just because you wanted to rail me into the mattress.”

Ellie, who pushes herself up with her left arm, looks down at her with some confusion.

“Um, Dina? We’re still kind of… tied,” she says, and frowns up at her with that dumb, adorable expression that makes Dina melt whenever she sees it.

“Oh really?” Dina asks, deliberately squeezing down on Ellie’s knot, which makes Ellie choke on air for a moment. “I hadn’t noticed.” She pushes at Ellie’s shoulder with one arm while pushing herself up with the other. “This would be so much easier if you had just let me ride you.”

“I did,” Ellie protests, pulling Dina into her arms. She’s red in the face, and Dina can feel Ellie’s half-deflated cock stand to attention again. Now, if only her knot would go down so Dina could actually do anything with that erection.

“Sure.” Dina pats Ellie’s shoulder, taking a selfish moment to draw lines around the muscles of Ellie’s biceps. Her heat definitely isn’t over, at least not judging by the way her eyes laser-focus on Ellie’s neck. A bite there really would look pretty.

\----

The stitches haven’t ripped, but they’re an angry red color that seems to just be screaming for Ellie to stop moving. Slowly, Dina and Ellie shuffle over to the edge of the bed so Dina can reach into her backpack for a sling she keeps on hand.

Ellie doesn’t seem thrilled to be wearing it, but a kiss from Dina shuts her up.

“If they haven’t found us by now, I think the chances are low that they will,” Dina says, patting Ellie’s right bicep. “So you don’t have to worry about being able to defend yourself while we’re in here.” She lays a gentle kiss against Ellie’s chin.

“I’m not worried about myself,” Ellie says, before tilting down her head just far enough to capture Dina’s lips with her own.

They trade lazy pecks back and forth, and Dina’s hips start moving of their own accord, slowly rocking back and forth on Ellie’s knot. It will probably take another ten minutes to deflate, and then they can switch condoms and maybe go for round two.

“I know,” Dina says, drawing her fingers along Ellie’s chest. “But you have to worry about yourself sometimes.” She strokes along a scar just below Ellie’s left collarbone. “Imagine what it would do to me if something happened to you.”

Fingers splayed on Dina’s back, Ellie’s hand tugs her closer.

“Then who would I ride?” Dina whispers innocently.

“I’m sure you’d find someone,” Ellie replies, voice deadpan and one eyebrow raised.

Dina nips at her jawline.

“No one like you,” she says, pushing on Ellie’s shoulders until she’s on her back. “You’re one of a kind, Ellie Williams.” She means it to be a sexy statement, punctuated by a twist of the hips to signify her intentions, but when she sees Ellie’s happy smile, she leans down for a gentle kiss instead. “You’re so beautiful.”

With her left hand curling around Dina’s cheek, Ellie drags her back into more kisses. Soft and heartbreakingly tender.

“Thank you,” Ellie whispers to her, nuzzling their noses together.

Chest filled to bursting with emotions, Dina kisses her back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well well well how the turn tables 👀
> 
> see y'all on wednesday for the final chapter!
> 
> if you want to support me, find me on tumblr @goshdarnitjay


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well, peeps--- it's been a fun ride! the feedback has been :chefs kiss:
> 
> i love you and hope you like ch9!

Some indeterminate time later, Dina wakes feeling sore and satisfied.

The room is pitch-black, but she doesn’t need her vision to know that she’s naked under a blanket and that there’s an equally naked alpha behind her. Pushing herself into a sitting position, she slowly moves her neck from side to side to work out any kinks left behind from sleeping on her side without a pillow for a few hours.

She’s sore from their rutting, as well as having been stretched by Ellie’s knot for extended periods of time, but it’s not a bad feeling. If anything, it makes her want to jump on Ellie’s lap and do it all over again. For now though, she reclines back on the bed and turns onto her other side, facing Ellie.

“Baby,” she whispers, letting her hand reach through the darkness until she finds the hot skin of Ellie’s chest. “Are you awake?” She leans further in so she can bite and pull gently at the skin just below Ellie’s jaw. “Mmh, Ellie… Wake up. Your girlfriend wants attention.”

The word is out of her mouth before she can process the implications.

“Girlfriend?” Ellie says, voice groggy. “Kat, is that you?”

With a laugh, Dina slaps Ellie’s chest.

“Asshole,” she says with another soft slap.

“Sorry, sorry,” Ellie says, mirth clear as day in her voice even though Dina can’t see her face. “It’s Doris, right? No, wait. Di—Di, something Di… Diana! Oof—” She lets out a heavy breath when Dina jumps on and straddles her.

“I was about to offer my humble self to you for a bout of vigorous lovemaking, but I guess my efforts have been misplaced this whole time,” Dina says, pressing down Ellie with a hand on each shoulder. She still can’t see her, because they snuffed out the candles before going to sleep, but she can smell her. Her interest. “Any alpha would be glad to have me.”

_ “So _ glad,” Ellie teases her, her left hand curling around Dina’s waist.

“You know, I’m slowly starting to understand why everyone in town seems to want to punch you. You’re aggravating.” She starts moving her hips slowly and rhythmically against Ellie’s lap, where she can feel the telltale signs of Ellie extending. It’s a good start.

“No one is stopping you from leaving the bunker,” Ellie says through heavy breaths, moving back against Dina’s hips.

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you? But you’re not getting rid of me that easily.” Keeping Ellie’s shoulders pressed to the mattress, she moves until she’s off of Ellie’s growing erection. Slowly, she drags herself across Ellie’s stomach, painting her in wetness. “If you’re just going to run your mouth like that, we should give it something else to do.”

Taking care not to bump into Ellie’s forearm, Dina craws up the bed on her knees.

Before she can crawl too far, Ellie stops her, and her heavy breathing is a tease and a blessing on Dina’s clit. Reaching forwards into the dark with one hand, Dina steadies herself on the stone wall of the bunker, while with the other she grabs a hold of Ellie’s hair.

“Now be a good alpha,” Dina whispers, before lowering her hips so Ellie doesn’t have to stretch her neck in order to reach. “And make your girl come.”

In response, Ellie’s left hand curls around her thigh and drags her down, her mouth and tongue enthusiastic as she starts sucking and licking at Dina’s wetness. She wants to roll her hips into each lick against her clit, but Ellie’s hand on her is like steel.

Dina wishes she’d taken the time to relight some of the candles so she could see Ellie’s eyes and commit this moment to memory. But since they’re stuck in the dark, all she has is the sensation of Ellie sucking on her clit, the sound of her happy moans as she licks up whatever wetness Dina’s cunt gives her, and the smell of her pheromones mixing with the smell of Dina’s arousal.

Her teeth buzz again, reminding her of what her heat really wants.

“Ellie,” Dina rasps out, tugging ineffectually at Ellie’s scalp. “Do you want to mark me?”

In lieu of a verbal answer, Ellie doubles her efforts and pulls Dina in even closer. There must be wetness all over her face by now, and Dina whines as the image of Ellie eating her out with reckless abandon enters her mind and refuses to leave.

It’s too good, and Dina rests her forehead against her bicep as she’s pulled closer and closer to the edge.

With a sigh and a shudder, she’s finally allowed to grind down against Ellie’s mouth to chase her orgasm, and with a lick from Ellie that hits just right, Dina lets the waves of her climax press through her. Clenching and shaking, she notes faintly that Ellie’s teeth have found purchase on the inside of her thigh and have bitten down just far enough to leave a bruise, but not any permanent bond.

Still, the bite satisfies a deep longing in her chest.

It takes a bit of maneuvering until Dina is on her back again without jostling any hurt part of Ellie’s, but when she’s horizontal, she lets out a long breath and whistles into the darkness.

“So,” she starts, groping around between them until she finds Ellie’s hand. “You said you’ve never had sex before, but…”

“Oh,” Ellie says, squeezing Dina’s fingers. “I’ve never knotted anyone, but I’ve done this with a few girls over the years. Just when Joel and I would stop somewhere for a week. Occasionally there’d be someone.”

Curling into Ellie’s side, Dina seeks out her face for a kiss.

“I bet you left broken hearts behind wherever you went,” Dina whispers, sliding her leg across Ellie’s thigh. “Maybe I should feel bad for them, but honestly? I’m just glad you’re here with me, and I get to reap the spoils of their labor.”

Ellie, whose face smells like Dina’s arousal, lets out a snort of derision. When she doesn’t say anything in response, Dina settles half on her and half on the mattress, her leg pressed against Ellie’s extended clit. It holds promise, and she doesn’t intend to let it go to waste.

“I’m glad I got to be the first one to take your knot,” Dina says, keeping her voice casual and light as she draws her fingers around and around Ellie’s navel. Pushing herself a little further up with her right hand, she lays a series of kisses against Ellie’s chest.

“I’m glad that it was you, too,” Ellie replies, her left hand curling around Dina’s back and finding purchase on one of her butt cheeks. “And, um, I don’t know how much you were joking earlier about the girlfriend thing… I mean, you broke up with Jesse only a little while ago, so I don’t want to assume anything.”

Chest full, Dina curls her hand around Ellie’s shaft and bites at her collarbone at the same time.

“Ellie?” she asks sweetly as she starts sliding down the bed.

“Yeah?” Ellie squeaks, her hips bucking into every stroke.

“Shut up,” Dina says, wrapping her lips around the head of her cock. She gives it a suck and a twirl of her tongue, before pulling away again. With a twist of her wrist, she lays Ellie’s length flat on her stomach and licks it from top to bottom. “Of course I’m your girlfriend.”

\----

Dina opens up the hatch of the bunker slowly and by degrees.

Her eyes and ears search the surroundings, but nothing seems out of the ordinary.

“Come on,” she whispers to Ellie as she fully opens the hatch of the bunker and climbs out quickly. Behind her, Ellie follows more nimbly than she should be able to with the wound on her forearm. They’ve forgone the sling now that they’ll be travelling back to the compound.

As soon as Ellie is out, Dina replaces the hatch, already planning her return to clean up the mess she and Ellie left behind.

“Low to the ground,” Ellie says, and they start moving through the haze of the morning. The sun is still rising, and dawn is fast coming to an end. At the moment, they have no plans to finish with the raiders before regrouping at Jackson with the others.

Dina is pleased to say that her heat has entirely lifted, and she finally feels like she doesn’t reek like ten omegas anymore. Now she just smells of sweat, grime, and old blood, but that’s something she can deal with much more easily.

Up ahead, Ellie still looks a little worse for wear. If Dina had to guess, she’d say that Ellie’s rut is holding on more stubbornly, and she has plans to fix that as soon as they get back to Jackson. There may even be a mirror involved. And perhaps some restraints. She hasn’t decided yet if it’s more fun to tease Ellie while she can retaliate but chooses not to, or while she can’t but pretends that she would if she weren’t tied up.

She has time to figure it out.

They take the long route through the town, hoping to evade detection, and they almost make it all the way out when they spot a dead body that looks too fresh to have been an infected. Before moving on, they examine it, and find with some relief that it isn’t one of their friends.

“Could be Joel’s work,” Ellie says, frowning down at the slash wound on the raider’s throat.

“We’ll find out when we get back to Jackson, I guess,” Dina says, staring Ellie down.

“Or we could—” Ellie starts, but Dina just points at her forearm to get her to shut up. “Okay, yeah. Fine. We’ll find out in Jackson.” She grumbles almost inaudibly, but Dina pretends not to hear as they continue their trek.

By the time they reach the field of tall grass that led them into the town in the first place, Dina finds more of her worry fall away. Even if they encounter any raiders here, there are no houses for more of them to be hiding in.

Still, it’s back to crawling, and from here on out Dina worries mostly about the stab wounds on her girlfriend and how they will survive being dragged through mud, earth, bugs, and whatever else nature may decide to throw at them.

\----

It takes them longer to get back to Jackson than it did to take them to the first check-point, but when the guard towers and the wall finally come into view, Dina lets out a breath she’s been holding for what feels like days.

“Home at last,” she says, slinging her rifle across her back and reaching out to touch Ellie’s right arm. “Before we do anything else, we head to the clinic, alright? I want to make sure I didn’t fuck up your treatment. And we should probably give you some antibiotics to stop any infection, too.”

“Sure,” Ellie replies, slinging her own rifle behind her back, too, so she can take Dina’s hand.

Her smile is so sweet that Dina almost doesn’t see the gates to the compound open.

“Ellie!” a deep voice calls out to them and Dina nearly drops Ellie’s hand in response.

“Here we go,” Ellie whispers as she faces her adopted father. “What’s up, Joel?”

He barrels into her like a wall full of bricks, and Ellie lets out an exaggerated huff.

“Where the hell have you been?” Joel demands, curling his hand around the back of Ellie’s neck and holding her tightly to him. “I been worried sick about you! There were raiders all over the place where we sent you.”

“Yeah, I know,” Ellie replies, looking pleadingly at Dina, who only shrugs. “That’s kind of the reason why we hid.”

When Joel finally pulls away, his eyes zero in on Ellie’s injuries.

“I guess they weren’t lyin’,” he says, taking Ellie’s right forearm gently. “They told me they didn’t know where you went.” He frowns down at her, before moving his gaze to Dina, who tries not to look too obviously like she’s spent the last two days riding his daughter. “Dina.”

“Joel,” Dina replies with a tentative smile.

He nods, then he clasps Ellie’s shoulder and starts dragging her to the gate.

“Come on,” he says, and Dina follows after them. When Ellie looks back at her a little helplessly, Dina only smirks and winks.

\----

Closing the door to her apartment behind herself, Dina lets her backpack drop to the ground with a heavy thud. She follows it up with her jacket, her sweater, her jeans, and her underwear. Once naked, she heads into the bathroom.

The mirror in there shows her just how dirty she is, but before she does anything else, she brushes her teeth. She scrubs thoroughly and for several minutes, and only when she feels satisfied that each and every last germ of the last two days has been killed, does she rinse her toothbrush and her mouth.

She’s only just turned on the water in her shower, when there is a knock on her front door.

“Come in if you’re Ellie!” Dina calls from her bathroom as she pulls the tie from her hair to give it some air to breathe. Her hair is a frizzy mess, and she shelves a thorough brushing for after it’s clean.

“Dina?” Ellie asks from the main room of the apartment.

"In here, baby," Dina says, slapping the frame of the doorway so Ellie can see her hand from around the corner. "I need a fucking shower." She's joined by Ellie, whose facial expression oscillates between horrified and relieved. "And who spat in your breakfast sandwich since the last time I saw you?"

As promised, Ellie, Joel and Dina went to the clinic first, where Dr. Roberts examined Ellie's injuries and complemented Dina on her needlework. There’d been some cleaning up of the wounds of course, but Dina had not planned on staying there for very long. She’d been on the verge of asking Ellie to come back to her place, when Joel beat her to the punch with his own ideas.

"I've never had a worse or weirder conversation in my whole life," Ellie says with a shake of her head.

Joel wanted to have a word with Ellie, just the two of them, so Dina had given them privacy. Although she would have given almost anything to watch what must have been a thorough chewing out.

"Weird?" Dina asks, reaching around Ellie so she can tug the hair tie out of her girlfriend’s tiny ponytail. She throws it down next to her own. "Didn't he just yell at you for not leaving him a message? Or leaving him hanging for two days?" She pulls at the straps of Ellie's backpack next. 

With a grimace, Ellie sets her backpack aside and shrugs out of her vest. 

"He asked me if we used protection," Ellie says through gritted teeth, her hands warm and solid on Dina's shoulders, where she's placed them for emphasis. "And then he got all misty-eyed and looked… happy? I don’t know." She mock-shudders. "I can never have sex again, if this is what comes after."

Dina tries not to laugh, she really does. But when Ellie just keeps looking at her with that distraught expression, she can't keep it inside. Bringing a hand to her mouth, she leans further into Ellie’s chest, her whole body shaking with joy.

“It’s not funny!” Ellie says loudly, but Dina only laughs harder and wraps her up in a hug.

“Fuck, Ellie,” she says through hiccups. “I love you.”

With a kiss to Ellie’s cheek, Dina pulls back and tugs at the bottom of her t-shirt. “Now get naked, will you? We’re wasting water by the bucketload.”

But Ellie just stares at her, her hands limp at her sides.

“Joel didn’t break you, did he?” Dina asks, pressing the back of her hand to Ellie’s forehead as though to check for a temperature. “If you want, I can tell him to keep his nose to himself and to stop sniffing you.”

Sliding her hand along the back of her neck, Ellie looks down at her, face turning red.

“You love me?” she asks, and Dina smiles up at her.

“Despite all logic and reason.” She leans up to press a kiss against Ellie’s lips. “I guess I’ve grown used to you.” Since Ellie doesn’t seem capable of raising her arms and thinking about love at the same time, Dina starts undoing her belt instead. “Why? Is that not what you wanted to hear?”

She’s half-managed to undo the button and zipper on Ellie’s jeans, when she’s wrapped up in an embrace. With a surprised squeak, she falls into Ellie’s kiss, broken only by Ellie tugging her shirt over her head and throwing it to the side.

“Well, alright then,” Dina says, just as Ellie strips out of her jeans. “Guess I have my answer.”

Pushing aside the shower curtain, Ellie walks them both under the spray of water. It’s lukewarm, and Dina lets out another laugh as it plasters Ellie’s hair to her face. In the light of the afternoon, Ellie’s body is even more beautiful than Dina could appreciate in the darkness of the bunker.

Since it’s been at least 48 hours since she stitched up Ellie’s forearm, she isn’t too worried about screwing them up or adding to a risk of infection. But she still wishes they’d taken the time to wrap them with a plastic sheet before stumbling under the showerhead.

“I love you, too,” Ellie says right before she drops her head to Dina’s neck to dig her teeth into her skin in what feels like a compromise.

Not a mating bite, but a promise.

With a content sigh, Dina slides her hand in between their bodies to grab a hold of Ellie’s growing erection. “We should get clean first, before the water turns cold on us. And then, if you want, you can rut me warm again.”

With a mix between a growl and a purr, Ellie takes a hold of Dina’s thighs and lifts her up, until her back is pressed against the wall of the shower and she’s looking down at Ellie. There’s that feral look on her again, the one Dina has seen throughout their stay in the bunker from time to time.

“Or we could just rut now, I guess,” Dina says, right before Ellie slips inside her.

The wall tiles are cold against Dina’s back, but Ellie’s body is hot against her front and even hotter inside her. It takes her a few more thrusts and growls from Ellie to realize that they’ve forgotten something.

“Ellie,” Dina whines, digging her nails into her girlfriend’s back. “Ellie, fuck, we need a condom.”

Her heat is over, so she’s pretty sure she shouldn’t still be receptive to pups, but she’s never cut it this close before. Usually, she likes to use the condoms a few days before and after her heat to make absolutely sure there are no accidents.

And besides, she wouldn’t be surprised if Ellie has some kind of mutated super sperm that manages to make it past all of Dina’s natural omega defenses that prevent omegas from getting pregnant outside of the proper heat cycles.

“Ellie,” Dina tries again, cupping Ellie’s cheeks and forcing up her head. “Condom! Big dumb alpha needs condom!” She taps Ellie’s cheeks, and squeezes her heels into the backs of Ellie’s thighs. “Ellie!”

It’s not that Dina doesn’t appreciate being drilled against her bathroom wall, but she’s also relieved when clarity seeps back into Ellie’s expression. Her hips still, and she looks up at Dina with some confusion and a lot of sheepishness.

“Sorry,” Ellie says, slowly sliding her cock from Dina.

“Just get a condom from my backpack, silly,” Dina replies, smiling up at her and patting Ellie’s butt to shoo her along. It’s a visual she won’t soon forget, seeing a dripping wet Ellie hurry through her apartment, erection swaying back and forth with the movement.

With a smirk Dina reaches for her shampoo.

May as well get started on washing herself while she still can.

Because when Ellie gets back, she’s making good use of that condom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> big dumb alpha and sassy smol omega lived happily ever after
> 
> if you want to support me, or give me ideas for one shots in this AU, hmu on tumblr @goshdarnitjay
> 
> thank you all AGAIN for the feedback. it has been A Good 💖😘✌🏽


	10. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SURPRISE BIT--, I BET YOU THOUGHT YOU'D SEEN THE LAST OF ME
> 
> y'all inspired me so much with your comments throughout this story that i wrote you this epilogue -- i hope you like it!

Sunlight streams in from the window above her bed.

With her face tucked into her pillow, she’s shielded from the rays, but her bare arm and shoulder take the full brunt. It’s an added layer of warmth that makes resting in bed just the slightest bit uncomfortable, especially with an alpha who runs unnaturally hot right behind her.

With a grumble, Dina turns around in the circle of Ellie’s arms and presses her nose and cheek against her girlfriend’s naked chest. Ellie doesn’t stir, but Dina feels the uptick in Ellie’s heart rate reverberate in her own skin.

“Too hot,” Dina mumbles, curling her hands around Ellie’s back and drawing her nails up her spine.

“Sorry,” Ellie replies sleepily, making no move to extricate herself from the embrace. “Can’t help it. Bite.” Her own hand curls around Dina’s back and tugs her closer, her mouth dropping down to nuzzle Dina’s forehead.

With a hum, Dina bites at the skin of Ellie’s chest.

“Reach up and pull the string on my blinds, will you?” Keeping her eyes closed, Dina barely budges as she feels Ellie’s right arm stretch up and fumble around for a couple of seconds. Then, just as Ellie lets out a triumphant breath, the blinds drop down and the room is bathed not in complete darkness, but in a dim drowsy atmosphere.

The lack of sunlight is a relief, but Dina still kicks off the blankets.

It’s early in the morning, but not as bad as when Dina and Ellie usually have to get up. After the disaster with the raiders at the checkpoint they went to, Tommy and Maria have given them the day off to recover.

“Thanks,” Dina says, digging the nails of her left hand into Ellie’s shoulder blade before slowly dragging them down. She can still feel the phantom sensation of Ellie’s teeth in her neck from the day before in the shower. “You smell good.”

Ellie, whose body has been equally revealed by Dina’s wriggling, curls her calf around the back of Dina’s legs and mouths ineffectually at her forehead. She smells almost normal again after her rut, but there’s a new keynote mixed in with the rest.

“You smell better,” Ellie replies, squeezing Dina with her biceps in a hug that’s on the verge of being too tight. Instead of moving away, Dina raises her head so she can place a kiss against Ellie’s pulse point.

\----

The new keynote in Ellie’s scent is Dina’s own.

It doesn’t occur to her that this is what she’s smelling until they take a shower that morning and wash off the sweat and other fluids from the previous evening’s rutting. While Ellie towels off her hair, Dina walks up behind her to kiss the back of her shoulder. And when she nuzzles at Ellie’s neck, she notes the difference.

A part of her wants to draw attention to it, to tease Ellie that her scent has so readily responded to her own, but a bigger part just wants to enjoy the moment.

So while Ellie smiles at her a little confusedly over her shoulder, Dina just hugs her close.

\----

Whistling to herself, Dina pulls on a pair of panties and her jeans, while Ellie lounges on her bed, naked as the day she was born. With her left hand behind her head and her eyes closed, Ellie’s right hand draws gentle circles on her own stomach, right over the bullet hole in her side that almost killed her before Joel took her back to Jackson.

“You’re looking happy,” Dina observes as she tugs on a bra. On the chair next to the bed, one of Ellie’s flannels resides, and Dina wonders whether she could get away with wearing it. It’s the one she clutched to her while she masturbated in heat.

“Can’t a girl enjoy her morning?” Ellie fires back at her, pulling her right foot closer to her body so she can lean her knee against the wall next to Dina’s bed. It gives Dina a perfect visual of Ellie’s abs drawing down into a gorgeous v-line, before culminating in a stunning cunt, and she temporarily halts in putting on her sweater. At the lull in conversation, Ellie opens one of her eyes and looks at her. “You doing okay, Dina?”

After another eyeful, Dina slips on her sweater.

“You should just always be naked. I’ve decided,” she says, before walking over to the bed and ogling Ellie’s body with exaggerated eyebrow wiggles for extra effect. She leans down just slightly so she can draw her own finger along a thin scar on the inside of Ellie’s left thigh. “How’d you get this one?”

Casually, she sits down on the bed next to Ellie’s hips and slides her fingers up and along the skin of Ellie’s leg and the left side of her v-line.

“Don’t laugh,” Ellie implores her, her right hand reaching forward and curling around Dina’s, pressing the palm of Dina’s hand against her own stomach. Together, they cover the bullet wound.

“I would never,” Dina replies sarcastically, leaning down and pressing a kiss against Ellie’s lips.

“Whatever,” Ellie shoots back at her with a roll of her eyes. “I fell off a horse. Joel and I wanted to go out hunting and I tried to show him a trick I was practicing at the time.” With an annoyed huff at Dina’s expression, Ellie pushes at Dina’s shoulder with her left hand. “I told you not to laugh!”

“I’m not laughing!” Dina defends herself, before breaking out into giggles. “You’re just really cute. You can’t blame a girl for being charmed! Especially when you’re all naked and hunky like this.” She leans in for another kiss, and Ellie responds by biting at her bottom lip a little harder than necessary.

“Hunky? Really?” Ellie whispers to her, before her hand slides into Dina’s hair and tugs her into a kiss.

“I tell it how I see it,” Dina says, all too happy to let herself get pulled into Ellie’s embrace.

\----

At some point, Ellie gets herself dressed, too.

Since she came over straight from their stint in the bunker and she didn’t have any clothes at Dina’s, she’s looking very cute in the outfit she ended up having to wear. She’s in a pair of black sweatpants that are loose on Dina but end about an inch above the ankles on Ellie. To round off the image, she’s wearing a maroon sweater that smells like Dina and the sleeves of which she’s rolled up to her elbows. It has seen better days, so it’s loose even on Ellie, because Dina almost drowns in it whenever she puts it on.

All in all, she looks like a dream Dina doesn’t want to wake up from.

“We should go to breakfast first,” Dina insists, tugging on Ellie’s left hand. She’s reapplied the bandage to Ellie’s right arm, but at least the cuts on Ellie’s fingers have healed well and don’t need the constant reapplication of band-aids. “I’m hungry.”

Looking a little sheepish, Ellie lets herself get dragged along, clearly trying to ignore the stares of the people they pass who are going about their business as usual.

“Maybe I should go get changed first,” Ellie says, curling the fingers of her right hand around the strap of her backpack. Her sneakers are caked with mud and blood, since Dina didn’t have any shoes that fit her, and they haven’t had the chance to clean any of their stuff yet. “I don’t want to make people uncomfortable.”

Furrowing her brows, Dina comes to a halt in the middle of the street to squint up at Ellie.

“What? Are my clothes really that ugly?” she asks, feigning offense to get that insecurity out of her girlfriend’s posture.

Looking down at her feet, Ellie shrugs.

“Um, well… Jesse may be there,” she says, catching Dina’s eyes with those green pools of swirling emotions. It’s a testament to how much Ellie has had to sacrifice in order not to draw attention to herself, that she would deny herself something most alphas would fall over their feet for: To show off their omega after spending their heat and rut together to any competitor who may challenge their claim. 

Soft understanding floods Dina, and she smooths her hands along Ellie’s chest, before leaning up to kiss her. She doesn’t care who might be watching.

“Ellie,” Dina starts slowly, cupping Ellie’s cheeks. “Do you like wearing my clothes?”

Breaking eye-contact, Ellie shuffles her feet.

“That’s not the point,” she says, curling her fingers around Dina’s right wrist. Her thumb slides against Dina’s pulse point there, and if they weren’t in public, Dina may well consider climbing her like a tree at her gentleness.

“Isn’t it, though?” Dina asks, leaning up for another kiss. “You don’t have to worry about what other people will say. And you especially don’t have to worry about Jesse.” She drops her hands so she can curl them around Ellie’s right arm. “Jackson is your home now, Ellie. You don’t have to hide yourself anymore.”

It’s always beautiful when Ellie smiles, but this time feels even more special, especially when Ellie pulls her into a hug.

\----

Being Ellie’s girlfriend is both rewarding and slightly vexing.

Dina finds this out quickly, especially once they both go back to work.

Their intermingling scents seems to have had a calming effect on Ellie’s, which results in her smelling more and more approachable, and although everyone in town should know the keynotes in Dina’s, none of them seem to be respecting her claim.

She notices this for the first time when she enters the mess hall three days after their return from the bunker.

The plan to hunt the raiders has been put on ice for the moment. Joel killed a few of them while out looking for Ellie and Dina, but he said he hasn’t seen the person who shot down Ellie, so the problem needs to be picked back up at some point.

As soon as she gets inside, she spots Tash behind the counter, smiling at her. On their first night back, she had snuck her and Ellie a bit of her preserved special stew, and Dina could have kissed her for it. And, just as Dina predicted, Ellie did not let her down. She loved the stew, too, or at least pretended well that she did.

Just after she waves to Tash, her face turns to the side in search of her girlfriend. They haven’t spent the night together, because Joel wanted to have a discussion with Ellie about picking up their training regiment again. They both let it slide after coming to Jackson.

As soon as she spots her, Dina’s smile freezes on her face, because Ellie isn’t by herself for a change. For one, she’s sitting with Maggie, Kat, and Missy, which wouldn’t be a problem. But there’s a girl sitting next to Ellie, whose hand is a little too comfortable on Ellie’s right forearm. Ellie has been allowed to take off the bandage, which reveals the stitches standing out starkly against her intricate tattoo.

Eyes narrowing, Dina feels her instincts puff up with annoyance.

Kiley should know full-well that Ellie is taken, considering that Ellie must fairly _reek_ of Dina.

With a frown on her face, Dina picks up her tray. As soon as she’s got her breakfast, she stomps over to Ellie’s table.

“Hey,” she says, setting down the tray next to Ellie’s with a bit more force than strictly necessary. “Did you have a good night?”

It’s a petty move to cup both of Ellie’s cheeks and pull her in for a deep kiss. Dina can admit that much to herself. But she also doesn’t care, not when Ellie melts into her and curls her arm around Dina’s waist in a clear sign of mutual possession.

“Um,” Ellie says dumbly when Dina pulls away.

“Good,” Dina breathes, glaring at Kiley once she’s sat down. She firmly places her hand on the inside of Ellie’s thigh and forces a smile to Maggie, Kat, and Missy. “How about you guys? Are you having a good morning?”

Missy looks like she’s on the verge of stuffing her fist into her own mouth to stop herself from laughing. Kat takes a sip of tea, and Maggie forces her face into a neutral expression as her eyes move from Dina, to Ellie, to Kiley, and back to Dina again.

“Better than yours,” Missy says between obviously fake coughs.

“We’re working in the gardens down at the South gate this morning,” Kat says helpfully, pointing at herself, Maggie and Ellie. “We’ve already decided Ellie is carrying the water buckets to the irrigation system.”

“Oh?” Dina asks, eyes focused on Kiley’s hand, which is precariously close to Ellie’s on the table.

“Yeah,” Maggie chimes in, poking at the egg on her plate. Her face is still trying to look neutral, but Dina can read the amusement in her every feature. “That way, we’ll give the others something to look at.”

Her words don’t soothe Dina’s worries, especially when Ellie only rolls her eyes, clearly underestimating her natural charms again.

“You guys fucking suck,” Ellie says, pulling her right hand off the table so she can point at her forearm with the left. “I’m not supposed to do any heavy lifting until this has healed better.” Her left hand comes to settle on Dina’s. “You can carry those buckets yourselves.”

Instead of putting her right hand back on the table, Ellie places it on her own lap, which causes Kiley’s mouth to turn into a pout.

 _Good,_ Dina thinks. _Take a hint._

“If you need time to heal, I’d be more than willing to help you, Ellie,” Kiley says, her lips turning back up into a smile. Her omega scent swirls around them, and Dina can smell her approaching heat. Clearly, she’s looking to score Ellie as her heat buddy, and Dina can understand why. Although this doesn’t dampen her anger.

“See? At least someone at this table is nice to me,” Ellie says with a triumphant smirk at Maggie and the others. Her fingers squeeze Dina’s, and they’re so soft and gentle that the gesture soothes her against her will. “Thanks, uh…”

“Kiley,” Kiley says, her smile growing a little wooden when Ellie nods at her. Her tray has barely been touched, but Kiley still gets to her feet and picks it up. With a careful look at Dina, she nudges Ellie’s arm with her hip. “I’ll see you later?” She sounds hopeful, and Dina feels half-bad for her.

“Sure,” Ellie says absentmindedly, smiling at her like she would at any stranger who was nice to her, and Dina shares a look with Missy that conveys more of their exasperation than their words ever could.

Looking a bit dejected, Kiley leaves their table to go sit somewhere else, and as soon as she’s out of earshot, Kat and Maggie both instantly start to laugh into their sandwiches. At the same time, Missy buries her face in her hands, and Ellie looks confusedly at all three of them, before seeking out Dina’s gaze for an explanation.

Warmth taking root in her chest, Dina pulls Ellie into a gentle kiss.

“Why is everyone acting so weird?” Ellie asks quietly, her own scent smelling of confusion and Dina.

In lieu of answering, Dina just pulls her into a hug.

“Doesn’t matter,” she murmurs, snuffling her nose against Ellie’s neck. She wants to place a bite there, to reinforce her claim. Not a permanent one, not yet, but one that establishes Ellie as hers, at least for a moment. “Love you.”

Ellie smiles sweetly.

“Love you, too.”

Their moment holds for several seconds, before they break apart to go back to breakfast. Despite her initial irritation, Dina feels good about the outcome. She’s gone back to enjoying the day, and Ellie has just taken a bite of her sandwich, when Missy slams down her palm on the table.

“That girl wants to ride you, Ellie, for _fuck’s_ sake!”

There’s definite mirth in her tone, which quickly dissipates when Ellie spews the contents of her mouth across the table.

\----

Despite Ellie’s insistence that Kiley was just being nice without any ulterior motives, Dina finds herself strolling by the garden section down at the South side of the compound. She does this under the pretense of picking up a fresh supply of certain herbs, although Missy doesn’t believe her and teases her mercilessly before she leaves.

As soon as she gets closer, Dina picks up on Ellie’s scent hanging around in the area, and she follows it around a little, sticking her nose in the air. There are other smells and keynotes, but none who resonate as strongly.

“Hey Dina,” she hears, pulling her away from her search. It’s Jesse, who’s leaning against the guard post she’s just passed. As she’s busy with Ellie, he hasn’t even become a blip on her radar. “Out on a stroll?”

He smiles at her, and it doesn’t look forced.

It’s now a little under two weeks that they’ve broken up, and Dina hopes that he’s doing okay. He seems like he is, but there’s a part of her that worries for him, even though they’re no longer an item. Four years is a long time to be dating someone, after all.

“Just picking up some herbs for the clinic,” Dina mentions, lifting the satchel she’s got hanging from her shoulder. “And you? Slacking off at work again?” Her nose picks up on his scent, and it smells familiar and friendly but holds nothing that entices her.

“Just taking a quick break,” he says, pushing himself away from the post. “I’m actually glad to run into you.” He takes a step forward but doesn’t invade her personal space, and his hand reaches for the back of his neck to scratch there in unsure awkwardness.

“Really?” she asks, hoping he’s not going to comment on the status of their relationship, or whether it would be possible to rekindle it. “What’s on your mind?” She lets the satchel drop back from her hands and curls her fingers around the strap instead to have something to hold onto. Just in case Jesse decides to be weird.

“Yeah,” he says with a grimace. “I wanted to say that I’m glad you and Ellie came back in one piece. I was worried about the two of you.” He stuffs both of his hands into the pockets of his jeans and looks at the ground. “I acted like a real asshole to her. And to you, too, Dina.”

Her fingers relax and she gives him a smile.

“No argument from me,” she says teasingly, glad to see Jesse’s more even-tempered nature shining through again. She’s not sure she ever truly loved him, but she did love having him around as a confidante. As someone she could turn to and someone who kept her safe. “Ellie didn’t deserve any of what you said to or about her.”

He nods.

“I know,” he says, looking at his feet. “But I owe you an apology, too.” The next time he looks at her, his expression is one of contrite determination. “I took you for granted, and I thought I couldn’t lose you no matter what I did or how I behaved. I got complacent.” He worries his bottom lip with his teeth, before straightening out his back again. “I know you’re with Ellie now and I respect that, but even still, I wanted to say I’m sorry.”

Now Dina finds herself nodding, too.

“Thanks,” she says, letting go of the strap of the satchel and dropping her hands to her sides. “I appreciate it.” She brings her fingers to her neck, where Ellie’s half-bite tingles. It grounds her, and she finds herself walking forward and punching his shoulder. “I know you already apologized to Ellie, but you know what I would love for you to do?”

Jesse shrugs, rubbing the spot where Dina has struck him.

“Tell all the other alpha knuckleheads that Ellie is off-limits. If anyone else decides to go after her, they’ll answer to _me,”_ she says, crossing her arms over her chest and staring up at Jesse with all the righteous fury she can muster. “She never did anything to any of them, and if they don’t cut out their posturing bullshit, I _will_ break their legs.”

Although Jesse nods to this as well, he looks like he’s trying to suppress a smirk.

“Well look at you being all scary and alpha,” he teases her, and she sticks her tongue out at him.

“I’m not fucking around,” she says, taking a step back and looking off in the direction of the gardens. Her heart aches for her girlfriend and all she’s had to work through, and Jesse must sense the way her thoughts have turned.

“Yeah, I get it,” he says with a wistful smile. “I knew from the moment I saw her I didn’t stand a chance.”

Dina wonders if she should feel guilty about his words and what the implications of them are, but all she can do is agree with half a shrug. If she’s honest with herself, she’s not sure she stood a chance, either.

\----

When Dina finally reaches the gardens, she’s pleased to see Ellie without a shirt on.

This joy, however, lasts all of three seconds, because she realizes that one of the alpha girls in town is crouched down next to Ellie. They’re both working on weeding the area around the growing turnips, and the other alpha girl – whom Dina identifies as Cristina – keeps leaning in to whisper stuff into Ellie’s ear.

In nothing but a white tank top and her jeans, Ellie looks sinfully attractive, especially with her tattoo on full display and her muscles glistening with sweat in the sunlight. It’s no wonder she’s attracted someone else to her side, especially someone like Cristina, who doesn’t discriminate between beta, omega, or alpha in whom she picks as a sexual partner.

Grinding her teeth, Dina marches over to Maggie and Kat, who are carrying a barrel in between them.

“Hey,” Dina says, coming to stand beside them as they heft the barrel onto a larger assortment of other barrels. They’re both sweating, too, and while Maggie is still wearing her blouse, Kat is down to her tank top, too. Her arms are also littered in tattoos, so Dina isn’t entirely sure why Cristina _had_ to pick Ellie over Kat to flirt with.

“Hey, Dina,” Maggie says, wiping the back of her hand against her forehead. “What are you doing here?”

When Dina’s eyes flit to Ellie, who smiles shyly at something Cristina has said, Kat and Maggie share a _look._

“Just here to pick up some herbs for the clinic,” Dina says defiantly, despite the fact that she’s been found out after less than a second.

Kat hums skeptically.

“Sure,” Maggie says, waving air into her face with her palm.

A moment lapses between them, then Cristina laughs loudly and places her hand on Ellie’s shoulder.

Eye twitching, Dina takes off the satchel and gracelessly drops it on one of the barrels. She has half a mind to storm over and mount Ellie in the middle of the garden bed, and a baser part of her demands that she rub her cheek all over Ellie’s face and neck and shoulders.

Thankfully, she’s not by herself, and a snort from Kat draws her away from those thoughts.

“She’s been fending off people all morning,” Kat says, leaning against the wall of the shed they’re standing next to. The overhanging roof gives them some shade, and Dina whips her head around to stare at her friend.

“Oh?” Dina asks through clenched teeth, forcing her lips into a smile, trying to look unconcerned and only politely interested. She’s glad Missy isn’t here to learn of this.

Maggie smirks at Dina.

“Sandra helped her with the fertilizer, even though it’s the worst job,” Kat elaborates, her eyes fixed on Ellie and how she slowly moves away from Cristina’s lingering touch. “Lou asked for Ellie’s flannel because she was _cold.”_ She puts the last word into quotation marks with her fingers. At Dina’s wooden smile, Kat wiggles her eyebrows. “Ellie didn’t give it to her, just in case you’re wondering.”

“I wasn’t,” Dina lies, glaring at Cristina even when the alpha woman looks up and they make eye contact. Something akin to guilt flies across Cristina’s eyes, and she smiles tightly up at Dina, before slowly getting up and excusing herself from Ellie. Dina can’t hear what she says, but Ellie only nods and smiles.

“Yeah, I can tell,” Maggie says, crossing her arms over her chest. “You’re just an innocent bystander. Not at all invested.”

“I’m glad we understand each other,” Dina replies with some satisfaction, though her attention is focused on Ellie. “I’ll be right back for those herbs.” While Maggie and Kat snigger, Dina quickly crosses the distance between her and Ellie and comes to stand next to her. Once Ellie is back upright again, Dina leans up to kiss her cheek. “Hey, baby.”

Ellie places her dirty, gloved hands on Dina’s waist and nuzzles their noses together.

“Hey,” Ellie says, placing a gentle kiss against Dina’s lips. “Slow start at the clinic?”

Drawing her fingers along Ellie’s chest and stomach, Dina breathes in her overwhelming scent. Out in the open like this, it’s not as intense as inside her small apartment, but it hangs around her all the same and even seems to dance on the wind.

“You’re gorgeous,” Dina says instead of answering, lifting her hand so she can slide her thumb across the scar that separates Ellie’s left eyebrow. “I shouldn’t be surprised the girls are falling over themselves to get with you.”

Under her thumb, Ellie’s brows furrow.

“I don’t know what’s different.” Ellie pulls Dina a little closer, her control slipping ever so slightly on her scent as it reacts to Dina’s proximity. Dina may be a temporary mate, but she’s a mate all the same. “I’m really trying to keep a low profile.”

The statement makes Dina’s heart ache, and she chastises herself for her jealousy. She should be happy that Ellie is getting along better with people, but instead all she wants to do is to lock Ellie in her apartment and not let her out until they’ve rutted on every available surface and their necks are adorned with matching marks of possession.

She works hard on reigning in those feelings before they gain the upper hand. She’s not Larry or Jesse. She has no interest in controlling what Ellie does or who she talks to. And on a logical level, she knows Ellie won’t cheat on her.

“You don’t smell the same,” Dina says, smoothing out the worried creases in Ellie’s forehead. “Can’t you tell?” Ellie’s ever-perceptive nose twitches. She must have smelled Dina even before she came into view, and yet she doesn’t seem to realize that Dina’s keynotes have melded into her scent.

Bringing her wrist to her nose, Ellie sniffs herself.

“I guess…” she says with some reluctance, before dropping her hand back to Dina’s waist and looking around herself, like she’s only just realized they’re still out in the open. In that brief spell of anxious recognition, Dina smells Ellie’s scent more acutely than before, and something niggles in the back of her mind again. Something off.

“We can talk about it later,” Dina offers, leaning up and giving Ellie a kiss in order to distract her from her worries. A small part of her is still concerned about what Ellie said days before she shared her scent with Dina for the first time. _I’m not even sure if we’re staying._

Although Ellie has given no indication that she and Joel intend to leave, especially now that there are raiders in the area, Dina doesn’t want to take any chances. Because while she’s reasonably certain that she’d follow Ellie out of Jackson, she doesn’t intend to let it get that far.

\----

A perk of being Ellie’s girlfriend is the ability to wear her flannels whenever she wants. Even better, it never fails to fluster Ellie to see Dina in nothing but a flannel and her underwear, despite the fact that Ellie has seen her _all the way naked._

And after four days of watching Ellie be hit on by various people around the compound, Dina decides to capitalize on this knowledge.

Ellie has been half-apologetic, half-confused, and half-convinced that none of the girls and women who have tried to get with her have been doing so with intention to follow through. How other girls in other compounds and settlements ever convinced Ellie to eat them out, Dina has no idea. They must have been as shameless and blunt as Missy, and again Dina is glad that her best friend and fellow omega never took an interest.

As soon as Dina is done with her shift at the clinic, she sets her plan in motion.

She quickly walks over to the mess hall to pick up dinner for herself and Ellie and tells the person who’s serving that day to send Ellie to Dina’s apartment as soon as she turns up. Since her arm is still on the mend, Ellie’s assignment to the gardens down at the South side of the compound has persisted, so her way back to the mess hall is longer than Dina’s.

Arms full, Dina hurries back to her place and drops the two packages on her desk in the corner.

She has some work to do.

\----

The knock comes about thirty minutes later, and Dina doesn’t even have to ask who it is, because she can smell Ellie’s scent through the slit in between her door and the floor. Clearing her throat, Dina runs her hands through her hair a final time and leans further back on her bed.

“Come in,” she calls out, putting on her most sultry look as she watches Ellie’s hand and shoulder come into view.

“Hey, Dina,” Ellie says, her eyes on the floor for a second before she raises them. “Did you need som—” Smirking, Dina watches as Ellie stops in the doorway and stares, her jaw literally dropping open as she takes in the scene.

Soft romantic music plays from Dina’s record player, and a few candles burn on the windowsill to set the mood. On the bed, Dina has draped herself across her duvet, wearing nothing but Ellie’s red flannel, which she’s left unbuttoned. Her legs are crossed coyly, and she’s undone her customary bun so her hair lays in curls around her face.

“I _do_ need something, Ellie,” Dina says, drawing her right hand along her naked thigh. “But maybe you should close the door first before someone else sees what I have in store for you. Unless you’re into that sort of thing, in which case I’m sure we could come to a happy compromise.”

With a visible swallow, Ellie fully enters the room as quickly as she can and closes the door. Her backpack moves up and down with her breaths, and she leans her forehead against the wood like she needs a moment to compose herself, which does wonders for Dina’s arousal.

As though Ellie can’t do anything about it, her scent grows heavier in the air, and this time Dina doesn’t shy away from allowing her head to drop back to show her neck. With a needy whimper, she moves her hand closer to the apex of her thighs.

“Ellie,” she whines, and bares her neck further once Ellie looks back at her over her shoulder. “Do you know what I’ve been dying to do?”

After another swallow, Ellie turns around. Her left hand is pressed tightly to the door, her right clenched into a fist.

“What?” she asks, her eyes moving from Dina’s neck to her face, to her hand, to the floor and back again, like she’s afraid if she looks at anything for too long, Dina will burst into flames. Dina can relate to the feeling, because already her blood feels like it’s on fire.

Finally, Dina allows her fingers to slide fully between her legs and circle her own clit.

Like she’s drawn to a homing beacon, Ellie’s eyes drop down to stare at Dina’s hand.

“Ever since you shared your scent with me, I’ve wanted you to do it again,” Dina admits, fully laying back on her propped up pillow and holding out her free left hand to Ellie, beckoning her closer. “I saw glimpses of it here and there during your rut, but I want all of it, Ellie. All of you.”

With a thud, Ellie drops her backpack to the floor, though she makes no further move to step closer.

“Dina,” she says gravely, her voice thick with her own arousal. “It scared you the last time. I know it did.” Her eyes move to her own shoes, her expression pensive. She only looks up again after a long moment, as though she can’t bear not to see Dina’s reaction.

In response, Dina draws away her hand and lets her fingers paint a line down her own sternum.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Ellie continues, clenching both hands into fists. Her nose must be going wild with their scents mixing in this tight space.

Slowly, deliberately, Dina brings her index and middle finger to her lips.

“I wanted to bite you,” Dina says, before licking her fingers. “I wanted to scratch you and fight you and fuck you, all at the same time. And I wanted you to throw me down, press me into the mattress, and take me.” When Ellie doesn’t look convinced, Dina slides off the bed and gets to her feet. The flannel slides against her skin as she walks over to Ellie and presses her nose against her girlfriend’s pulse point. “Please, Ellie. You don’t have to be scared with me.”

Somehow, her ploy to sate her own jealousy has morphed into reassuring Ellie that she’s safe.

“I love you,” Dina whispers, pressing a kiss against the soft skin behind Ellie’s ear. “You’re not going to chase me away. You can let go with me. You can _stay._ You don’t have to run anymore.” She pulls back just enough so she can see Ellie’s face and a pleased little shudder runs through her when she feels Ellie’s hands settle on her naked waist.

With her eyes closed, Ellie leans down and nuzzles their noses together.

“I don’t ever want to hurt you,” Ellie says softly, lifting one of her hands so she can cup Dina’s cheek. With care, her thumb slides under Dina’s chin and tilts it up, and Dina lets herself get pulled into an open-mouthed kiss. Closing her eyes, she presses her body further into Ellie’s, her fingers finding purchase on her girlfriend’s stomach.

Again, the change in scent is gradual, but this time Dina doesn’t feel the fear and repulsion that was mixed in before. Like with the glimpses she’s caught over the last few days, Ellie’s scent has been noticeably altered, and she’s only now realizing how much. With the addition of Dina’s own keynotes, the rotting sweetness has dulled, but the effect it has is no less intense.

As she sinks deeper into the kiss, her nails dig into the fabric of Ellie’s t-shirt, and it takes considerable effort not to rip it apart. Instead, she lets out a few whimpers and licks desperately into Ellie’s mouth to take in more of her.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, she wonders if this dulling is why Ellie has been getting along so well with the other people in Jackson since their return, but a much bigger part of her brain power is focused on one thing, and one thing only: To get Ellie out of her clothes.

With their lips continuing to slide back and forth against each other, Dina drags her nails down Ellie’s stomach. As soon as she reaches the buckle of her belt, she pulls on it until the end of it comes loose.

Her hands tremble and her heart beats faster and faster as she breathes in more and more of her girlfriend. Thicker and heavier, like Ellie’s very scent wants to become part of her. It’s dominant, but not domineering. Not exactly.

“Ellie,” Dina whispers after pulling away from their kiss. Her lips tingling, she opens her eyes and stares up into those green pools of unfathomable pain and stunning beauty. As soon as she’s sure that she has her girlfriend’s full attention, she moves her hand to Ellie’s right wrist. “I want to feel your fingers for days. Every time I move.”

She barely recognizes her own voice.

Without having to be prompted, Ellie curls her left arm further around Dina and buries her face against her neck. Her teeth latch onto the temporary mark she left days ago, and Dina tilts back her head to give her easier access. Quickly, decisively, the fingers of Ellie’s right hand slide between Dina’s legs and into her wetness, circling her opening.

Letting out a sharp breath, Dina curls her arms around Ellie’s shoulders and rolls her hips into the circles, eager to bring them together.

All she can taste is Ellie.

“Dina,” Ellie breathes out, before going back to sucking on Dina’s neck.

“Please,” Dina begs, feeling her knees quake with the anticipation. “Please, Ellie. Please.” She feels delirious with want, the animal inside her wanting nothing more than to mount and fuck and feel those strong hands she’s been admiring for months.

“Are you mine?” Ellie whispers, dragging her teeth along Dina’s skin. Teasing her. Taunting her. A half-bite. Her fingers press against Dina, entering her with nothing but the tip of her pointer finger while her thumb moves up to rub her clit.

At the question, Dina is hit anew with Ellie’s barely restrained scent, and her arms squeeze Ellie’s shoulders, trying to bring her closer. Her animal wants to submit. Wants to mount. Submit. Mount.

“Are you _mine?”_ Dina hisses in turn, the nails of her right hand digging into the skin of Ellie’s back through two layers of clothing. It’s an outburst born of the last several days. Of having to watch Ellie be swarmed by other women, and of her slowly spiraling sanity in the face of Ellie’s potency.

Before Dina has a chance to do anything else, Ellie pulls back her head and crashes their lips together in a kiss more ferocious than they’ve shared up to this point. At the same time, her index and middle finger slide into Dina.

She loses all sense of time and space as she clings on desperately, Ellie’s fingers pushing and pulling and sliding in and out to a rhythm only she knows. Distantly, Dina wonders if her own nails are drawing blood or if she’s merely tugging on Ellie’s clothing, but it’s hard to think while Ellie’s strong and capable hands fuck her into oblivion.

They’re both panting, and Dina curls her fingers into Ellie’s hair, her senses overflowing with sensations. Ellie’s scent, Ellie’s sweat, Dina’s arousal, the noise of Ellie’s fingers moving back and forth, the feeling of her carpet under her bare feet, the flannel rubbing against her in between their bodies.

“Mine,” Ellie growls, biting down on Dina’s bottom lip.

“Mine,” Dina growls back after pulling away, retaliating by biting at Ellie’s jawline

Baring her teeth, the fingers of Ellie’s left hand tug Dina even closer, and Dina won’t be surprised if she wakes up with bruising there tomorrow. The thought turns her on. She wants as many marks as possible, as many signs that Ellie has been on her. Inside her. With her.

“Say it,” Dina gasps, her nails raking along the back of Ellie’s neck. “Tell me.”

Chest heaving, Ellie makes a come hither motion with her fingers and Dina’s eyes roll into the back of her head. She can feel the telltale signs of her approaching climax and holds on evermore tightly to her girlfriend.

“Please,” Dina whines, leaning her forehead against Ellie’s chin. There’s sweat gathering at her temples and the small of her back from the strain of staying upright as Ellie fucks her, but she can tell that it’ll be worth it.

Her plea causes a satisfied purr to rumble from Ellie’s chest, and Dina replies by rolling her hips harder and harder into Ellie’s thrusts.

“I’m yours,” Ellie finally confirms, her voice deep and gravelly from her own arousal. Not controlling her own scent is clearly affecting her just as much. Not to mention Dina’s reaction to it and the uptick in her own smell as well as that of her wetness. _“Fuck,_ Dina. I’m yours.”

Giving into the moment, Dina shudders and shakes as her orgasm washes over her, her whole body tensing up with pleasure. As soon as it happens, her animal nature cries out for a bite, and her jaw clamps shut in an effort to stave off the instinct. She and Ellie are not in a place where she would consider something so irreversible, especially with their limited supply of modern medicine in the compound. And yet, her animal doesn’t want to listen.

Slumping forward into Ellie’s arms, she feels the aftershocks zap through her limbs and tingle in her feet, calves, and thighs. A needy whine manages to claw its way out of her throat. It’s a primal mating call, and Ellie immediately responds to it with her own: A hungry growl.

Pulling her fingers out of Dina, Ellie slides her hands under Dina’s thighs and picks her up, just enough to walk them both over to Dina’s bed. When her shins bump against the frame, Ellie gently places Dina down on her back, her own knees coming to rest on the edge of the mattress.

Her flannel and t-shirt are quickly disposed of before her bra goes as well. Her shoulders are tan from the sunshine of the last couple of days, and freckles adorn the places where it has made contact. Idly, Dina asks herself how long it would take to kiss each and every one.

When Dina reaches for her own flannel to take it off, too, Ellie’s hands clasp her wrists.

“Keep it on,” she says, her eyes dropping to Dina’s half-concealed breasts.

A smirk creeps onto Dina’s lips, but she only nods and drops her hands.

Ellie’s scent is still heavy around her, but she feels herself adjusting to it more and more. Maybe it’s becoming part of her, or maybe her animal is simply settling into the constant onslaught of the most dominant alpha presence in town.

Pushing herself onto her elbows, Dina watches as Ellie fully unbuckles her belt, undoes and unzips her jeans and pushes them down along with her underwear. She struggles with kicking off her shoes, her pants half around her ankles. It makes Dina want to laugh, but when Ellie stands up in all her naked glory and straightens her back, the breath chokes in her throat.

Dina already knows that the bunker’s darkness and candle-light barely did Ellie justice. They’ve had sex a couple of times since, but Dina hasn’t had cause to take it all in. Not like this. Not with Ellie’s scent set to full blast and after a session of relentless finger fucking that has left her ready and wanting for more.

“How do you want me?” Dina asks, purposefully keeping her eyes on Ellie’s. Slowly, she spreads her legs, pleased to see Ellie’s gaze follow her every movement. “Like this? On my back? Or do you want me on top?”

Licking her lips, Ellie takes a hold of her cock and strokes up and down.

Even on full display like this, she still has a shyness about her that Dina finds endearing and that she can’t wait to watch dissolve over time. So she’s not surprised that it takes Ellie a second longer to think about her choice than it perhaps would have taken someone else. No, it’s her answer that surprises Dina.

“Actually,” Ellie says, sliding the fingers of her left hand along the inside of Dina’s thigh. “Would you…” Eyelids heavy with arousal, Ellie swallows thickly. “Would you mind getting on your knees?”

Her words, spoken with such hesitation, cause Dina’s stomach to twist and her cunt to clench in anticipation. Heart rate picking up again, Dina bares her neck and lets out a whimper.

“Fuck,” she says, before quickly turning onto her stomach and presenting herself. “Fuck. Whatever you want.” Squeezing shut her eyes, she presses her cheek against the mattress and lifts her ass into the air. And when Ellie’s chest gives off a pleased rumble of surprise, she only lifts herself higher. “But you need to get a condom now before you touch me, or else I won’t want you to use one.”

Glancing behind herself, she notes that Ellie’s eyes are glazed over, her focus entirely on Dina’s exposed cunt and the position she so readily assumed. Clearly, Ellie still hasn’t realized that Dina is willing to do almost anything for her. Besides, her animal is temporarily appeased, even without a bite.

“You can stare at it all night if you want, but I’d much prefer it if you actually did something about this situation,” Dina says, pushing herself onto her elbows and reaching for her bedside table’s top drawer. Before she can reach in for a condom, she finds herself pressed back down into the mattress again with Ellie on top of her.

“I plan to do plenty,” Ellie growls, keeping her left hand placed firmly on the top of Dina’s back, while her right reaches around her for a condom. Her length presses teasingly into Dina’s skin, her firmly muscled thighs a solid presence.

The display of dominance does wonders for Dina, who tries to wriggle back against Ellie, only to find herself utterly pinned. And this time, Ellie’s arm hasn’t been freshly stabbed, which leaves her almost entirely restored.

“But,” Ellie says, taking off her left hand for a second so she can roll on the condom, leaving Dina with the opportunity to roll back her hips. A new swell of Ellie’s scent forces her back down, and it’s the first time Ellie has done this to her. It’s the first time Ellie has made her submit by scent alone and it makes her wet. Even more so than before. “If you want to stop at any point, just say stop. Or grab me.”

She nods into the mattress, just before Ellie slides her shaft against her.

\----

Dina has had a lot of sex in her life. Most of it was with Jesse, but she had the odd experience here and there before she started dating him. She’s no stranger to this position, nor any of the others she and Ellie have partaken in. And yet, with Ellie’s hand at the back of her neck, and with their scents mixing and matching and nearly suffocating her as she assumes this primal mating position, she can’t help but whine and whimper when Ellie starts pushing inside.

 _“Yes,”_ Dina gasps out when the head of Ellie’s cock slips in. This time, there’s no resistance, not like in the bunker, and Dina knows that the only reason Ellie isn’t ramming into her is because she’s being a tease. But Ellie isn’t the only one who can play that particular game. With another whimper, Dina turns her face to the side so she can look at Ellie over her shoulder. “Come on, big alpha. Claim your prize.”

It has the desired effect, and Dina has to work very hard not to show her smirk when Ellie lets out a growl and slips fully inside with a single thrust.

Keeping her left hand on Dina’s neck, Ellie’s right slips around and down in between Dina’s thighs, her palm coming to rest on Dina’s lower belly. With a satisfied hum, Dina acknowledges what she knows their animals both want: Pups. Something so far outside of what _Dina_ wants that she’s doubly glad she and Ellie decided to opt for a condom _before_ they started fucking this time. Because while she’s not in heat and shouldn’t be receptive to pups, she’s not sure Ellie’s potent alpha much cares. Somehow, she’s convinced it would find a way to screw them both over.

“You’re… you’re so—” Ellie whispers, her eyes squeezed shut and her brows furrowed as she takes in the feeling of being fully inside Dina again. She’s been struggling with her stamina, and Dina doesn’t blame her for feeling a little embarrassed about it. Not that it’s much of a surprise, considering Ellie hasn’t done any of this before.

“So ready,” Dina supplies as she tries to move her hips, before another wave of pheromones pushes her back down and reduces her to whimpers again. It’s beautiful, this struggle of wits they’re both attempting, and she finds herself charmed anew by the way Ellie asserts herself.

After another moment, Ellie returns her right hand to Dina's waist, as though her alpha is satisfied that she’s reaching deep enough inside Dina to get this party started. Then, just as Dina thinks she’ll have to wait for a few more minutes, Ellie finally starts moving.

Her eyes squeeze shut and she curls her fingers into the duvet underneath her. At this angle, Ellie nudges against her front wall every time she moves back inside, and Dina already feels incredibly on edge from their scent sharing that she knows she won’t be lasting much longer than Ellie this time. Her back arches into each thrust as best she can, and she’s too far gone to care much about the sounds coming out of her throat.

Not that Ellie is doing much better, if her grunts and whines are anything to go by.

Forcing her eyes back open, Dina looks back at her girlfriend, her alpha, and notes with some surprise that Ellie’s head is dropped forward so that her chin is almost on her chest. Her mouth is open, and her teeth appear razor sharp, even though Dina knows this is nothing but her own imagination running wild with the pheromones in the air.

“Ellie?” Dina asks, reaching up and around herself so she can clasp Ellie’s wrist that’s still holding her down. “Are you—are you okay?” The bed squeaks and groans unhelpfully every time Ellie moves forward, and Dina can feel her girlfriend’s heartbeat thrumming away strong and fast under her own thumb. “Baby?”

Another whine passes Ellie’s lips.

When she lifts her head, her eyes laser focus on Dina’s, and her pupils are blown wide with arousal and something altogether more predatory. Just like in the bunker, just like the first time Ellie shared her scent, Dina recognizes the dangerous side of her. And all she wants to do is hop on and enjoy the ride.

“You want to bite me?” Dina asks, letting out a moan when she sees Ellie nod. “Mark me?”

“Mine,” Ellie growls, her thrusts growing erratic and discordant. _“Dina.”_

Dina thinks her name has never sounded so sweet.

With what strength she has left, Dina grabs her hair and slides it aside to bare her neck to Ellie’s hungry gaze. Slowly, she slides her fingers against the skin that Ellie has bruised before, and she’s sure she never wanted anything more than to be taken by Ellie in all ways.

She wants it. Doesn’t want to rush. _Wants it._

“Ellie,” Dina gasps out when Ellie lowers herself down to cover her entire back. The flannel bunches up in between them, soaking up their sweat, and Dina wonders if she can get away with never washing it again. “Ellie, Ellie, Ellie.”

Ellie’s right hand comes to rest next to Dina’s body, her powerful thighs pressing too hard and causing both of them to half-collapse further onto the bedspread. Yet Ellie keeps her left hand on the top of Dina’s back, ensuring her submissiveness. At least bodily.

“Mine,” Ellie repeats, her teeth settling on Dina’s neck. They make Dina’s skin tingle with anticipation, and while the logical side of her wants to scream, the animal can’t help but preen that the most powerful alpha in town wants _her._

When Ellie’s teeth retreat, Dina wants to protest, but she knows what the quickening in Ellie’s thrusts mean. She’s close, and maybe there’s a part of Ellie that knows she won’t be able to resist the bite if she comes with her jaws clamped around Dina’s sensitive skin.

Even while allowing herself a moment of quiet despair at the loss, Dina enjoys the feeling of Ellie tensing up behind her, partnered with a whimpering growl of orgasm that sounds too sweet to be coming from an alpha of her stature. More than ever, Dina’s animal wishes the restriction of the condom were not in place.

The next time Dina looks back, she almost stops breathing.

“Ellie!” she says with terror at the sight, bucking at her girlfriend’s hold for the first time in something other than teasing. At her distressed reaction, Ellie removes her hold immediately, her face alarmed as she slips out of Dina and allows her to turn onto her back.

“Whoa, Dina, it’s okay,” Ellie says, as though her left forearm isn’t bloody and mangled with two perfect rings of teeth marks. Teeth marks that Ellie’s overeager alpha had intended for the skin just below Dina’s pulse point.

Ignoring her protests, Dina cradles Ellie’s forearm in her hand.

“Fuck, Ellie,” Dina whispers, before gnawing on her bottom lip, her arousal temporarily set aside in favor of this. “I didn’t want this to happen when I teased you… _fuck.”_ She’s on her feet and in the bathroom before Ellie can so much as say another word.

Hands frantic and shaky, Dina crouches down so she can open the cabinet under her bathroom sink and get her first aid kit.

“Dina,” Ellie says, joining her in the bathroom. “It’s really fine.”

 _“That_ is not fine!” Dina says, bringing a hand to her forehead and trying to block out her stupid body’s stupid reaction. Ellie’s scent has her reeling, and a part of her wants to kiss and lick at that bite mark until Ellie is all better. “I shouldn’t have—fuck, Ellie. Fuck.”

As she comes back out from under the sink, she almost breaks out into hysterical laughter. The condom is still desperately clinging onto Ellie’s half-shrunken clit, and the whole situation makes her fall back onto her naked ass and break into tears.

Ellie looks absolutely terrified.

Dina doesn’t catch what she does with the condom, but by the time Ellie falls on her knees next to her and pulls her into a hug, it’s disappeared and Ellie’s clit has gone back to its unextended form. With a half-sob, half-laugh, Dina presses her cheek against Ellie’s naked chest and rubs at her own face.

“I’m sorry,” she says, curling her hands around Ellie’s forearm again. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” She stares down at the blood slowly welling up around the wound and reaches for the first aid kit.

“I suppose I’ll have to get another chemical burn,” Ellie attempts to joke, the fingers of her right hand slowly running back and forth on Dina’s back under the flannel. “And then another tattoo. Do you think Kat would help me design it? I don’t want people to think I got bit.”

With a sniffle, Dina drops the lid of the kit and pulls Ellie into a desperate kiss.

Her nerves are rubbed raw, and all she wants is to curl up with Ellie until she feels like herself again.

“You’re such an idiot,” Dina says when she pulls back, wiping at her cheek with the back of her hand.

“Thanks,” Ellie replies, voice flat but unmistakably relieved. “I love you, too, I guess.”

\----

They end up in Dina’s bed after they’re done patching up Ellie’s left forearm.

The window is open, and slowly but surely, Ellie’s overwhelming scent drifts out alongside the smell of their sexual escapades. Dina is still mostly naked, having put on nothing else but a pair of fresh panties, but Ellie has slipped on her t-shirt and a pair of Dina’s sweatpants. The sweats still don’t reach much further than a few inches above her ankles.

Dina has changed the music on her record player to a boogie track, and the candles have been extinguished.

Laying on her back, Ellie’s right hand is curled behind her head, and her legs are softly crossed at the ankles, her left foot swaying along to the music. Next to her, Dina stares at the ceiling, trying to regain her balance after her emotional outburst. She can feel that she’s still wet from their rutting, but she’s too exhausted to think about getting back up on Ellie’s cock.

With a sigh, Ellie turns her head to the side, her face contorted with guilt.

“I’m sorry,” she says, gnawing on her bottom lip. “I should have said no.”

Closing her eyes, Dina slides down a little further in bed.

“Please don’t apologize,” she says, before sitting up and looking down at her beautiful girlfriend and the deeply stupid expression on her face. “I wanted every bit of what you gave me, okay? I wanted to get on my knees for you, and I wanted you to make me submit with your scent. I loved every second of it.”

Still, the expression stays, and Dina reaches out to clasp Ellie’s left hand in between both of hers.

“Ellie… you know I love you, right?” Dina asks tentatively, pulling Ellie’s hand into her lap and gently stroking the freshly applied bandage. She hopes they won’t scar too badly, because otherwise Ellie really may have to get a second tattoo to cover it. Not that Dina has anything against that idea on principle, but she wishes Ellie could make decisions about her body art without having to be injured first.

Ellie looks away, but to her credit she manages a nod.

“Yeah, Dina, I know,” she says, her left hand twitching in a way it only ever does when Ellie feels too vulnerable not to give into the alpha urge to stay in motion. It’s a dead giveaway that not even Joel’s many lessons have managed to cover up.

Lifting Ellie’s hand to her lips, Dina kisses it, before kissing the bandage.

“Why do I get the feeling you don’t quite believe me?” Dina says, softly dropping Ellie’s hand back to her lap. Her heart aches for her girlfriend, who has known so much pain in her life that she can’t trust it when another human tries to tell her she’s important.

At her words, Ellie looks up again, now seemingly more guilty than before.

“I want to,” she admits quietly, her fingers clasping Dina’s tightly. Desperately. “I haven’t wanted something so much in a long time.”

She looks open and raw, and Dina can’t stop herself from leaning in and draping herself across her girlfriend, catching her lips in a kiss. It’s a slow and steady slide of lips against lips that Dina tries to pack as much love into as she can.

With care, she cups Ellie’s cheek.

“I’ll keep telling you until you do,” she promises, before pulling Ellie into another series of kisses.

And while Ellie’s arms wrap around her to hold her close, Dina counts her lucky stars that Joel stumbled into their compound with Ellie in his arms. Maybe she’ll have to send those raiders a fruit basket.

“Okay,” Ellie breathes, just before she rolls Dina onto her back. Her shorter hair falls into her face, and Dina brushes it back. The smile on Ellie’s lips is gorgeous and hopeful, and Dina thinks she’s already won half the battle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *mimics Ellie's deeply stupid expression*
> 
> if you want to support me, find me on tumblr @goshdarnitjay
> 
> beta-d by the lovely PlushPanda !


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